By John Kwoba
NAIROBI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Kenya men's volleyball team will be seeking to break the jinx and make it to the finals of the World Championships when they compete at the African Nations Championship in Cairo, Egypt this weekend.
While the country's women team has won the African title a record nine times, the men's team is yet to taste such glory and is training their eyes on winning their maiden title in Cairo, which will see them qualify automatically for the World Championships in Japan, in 2018.
Head coach Moses Epoloto said on Wednesday in Nairobi he has high hopes that the team will deliver the crown and the ticket to the global showpiece.
"We have talent and the exposure will help them. But the challenge is big and the teams will be out to stop us," said Epoloto.
Kenya is among the 16 teams that have been confirmed to compete at this year's men's African Championship, which starts on Sunday and will end on Oct. 29.
The teams that qualified through the zonal qualifiers are Morocco, Cape Verde, Ghana, Niger, DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Rwanda and Botswana.
Zambia, Chad, Libya owned wild cards, while Tunisia, Cameroon and Algeria confirm their tickets as top ranked teams in the FIVB rankings. Egypt as hosts completed the finals line up.
The participating teams will be divided into four groups for the preliminary round where the top two teams in each pool will make it to the second stage.
Epoloto has since named his final squad of 16 players for the tournament, with the team jetting out on Friday.
The African Championship will act also as a qualifier for the 2018 FIVB World Championship with the top three teams confirming their tickets to the finals in Tokyo, Japan. The United States is the defending champion.
