NAIROBI, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan volleyball team will join Burundi, Egypt, Mozambique and hosts Algeria in the battle for the 2018 Youth African Games to be held in Algiers from July 19 to 28.
Registration is still open and Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) is hoping more teams will come out for the tournament, an elementary level event, where the winner will take part in next year's World Youth Championships in South Africa.
Tarek Al-Adwar, the CAVB Press Officer, confirmed that the registration for the volleyball competition will be closed on Feb 14.
"It is important to know which teams will be coming so that we may determine the number of countries and consider the system to qualify eight teams in both men and women categories," he said.
"Hosts Algeria, Egypt, Mozambique and Burundi have already sent their official registration to participate in the quadrennial event," he continued.
The Youth African Games started in 2010 in Morocco and its second edition was hosted in Botswana in 2014.
The Games featured approximately 2000 athletes from 51 African countries competing in 21 sports. Gambia, Eritrea and Mauritania were the only African countries absent from the Games.
Kenya won silver medal in volleyball at the last competition in Botswana and will be eyeing a challenge to Egypt for the gold medal in Algeria.
Kenya finished the Games in sixth position with 25 medals - seven gold, 11 silvers and seven bronze, which was a big improvement from the single gold they won at the inaugural edition in Morocco eight years ago. Egypt topped the count with 45 gold and a total of 92 medals.
Apart from professionalizing the level of competitions in Africa, the African Youth Games also serve as a trial run for young African athletes prior to taking part in the Olympics and also contribute to the development of African sport by fostering Olympic values on the continent.
