All set for qualifiers in Raiply national volleyball finals
The Northern and Southern Regional Volleyball Leagues will this Saturday, September 29 hold qualifiers for this year’s Raiply national finals on October 12-14 in Mzuzu, whose winners walk away with MK600 000 and gold medals for both men’s and women’s categories.
The total package sponsorship package is over MK4.4 million and the runners-up shall receive MK200 000 plus 12 bronze medals while third place prize is MK100 000 for both categories.
There will be individual awards for both men and women for Most Valuable Player (MVP), Best Spiker, Best Setter, Best Receiver and Best Blocker. The six losing teams will each receive K20 000 each as consolation.
Volleyball Association of Malawi (VAM) general secretary Jairos Nkhoma said the tournament will be hosted by NRVL in Mzuzu at Katoto Secondary Sports Complex attracting 10 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams.
“The hosts NRVL will be represented by four teams each for both men’s and women’s categories,” Nkhoma said. “We count upon the participation of teams and recommend the teams to maintain good discipline.
“But also let’s together help to sensitize our society against illegal tree cutting and bushfires, We thank Raiply once more the sponsorship. It’s now about seven years of our splendid relationship with them and it has helped grow our lovely sport of volleyball from grassroots to elite level.
“This year, we are looking forward to a much competitive tournament as teams are improving at each tournament. We are inviting people to come and watch elite volleyball of 18 teams in total.”
NRVL qualifiers will be held at Katoto Courts for men and Rafiki High School indoor court for women starting from 8am while SRVL are playing the qualifiers at Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) and the Polytechnic Courts from 9am.
Central Region League (CRVL) already has Kamuzu Barracks, Mipuniro Spikers and Blue Eagles in mens and Kamuzu Barracks Ladies and Blue Eagles Ladies.
These are the teams in top three and top two for the 2017 Sempha League season as they have used CRVL’s Regulations, 2016, part 4.2.
Kamuzu Barracks are the national champions in men and Moyale Barracks in women.
Meanwhile, the Raiply national finals is used by VAM to identify teams to represent Malawi at Africa Zone VI Games which this year will be taking place in Durban , South Africa before Malawi hosts next year.
However, the deadline for National Federations to submit the names of the teams to Zone VI authorities is set on October 8 which will have passed by the time the Raiply national finals will be held.
However, the VAM GS says each country is given a slot of four teams to participate and at times even more than four depending on the failure of other teams to participate.
“At this moment every interested team can apply through VAM and as the Association we can recommend the top two teams in each category basing on our national tournaments. So teams must focus on registering first and working on the expenses because its a Club Championship of which each participating club caters for all expenses of accommodation, food, transport and tournament fees.
“Last year, three teams participated in the Zone VI Club Championship which was held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; Kamuzu Barracks men’s team and two ladies teams Blue Eagles and Moyale Barracks. At least, there was an improvement in winning of sets and we are very optimistic that our teams can still much better this year in Durban.The tournament in Durban is scheduled from 29th November to 8 December, 2018.”
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