Nigeria has clinched a historic qualification for the women’s beach volleyball event at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA, after Esther Mbah and Pamela Bawa emerged champions of the 2026 African Beach Volleyball Championship in Alexandria, Egypt, completesports.com reports.
The duo defeated Morocco’s Alexandria Erhart and Mahassine Darrhar in straight sets, 21-18, 21-10 in the championship final at Abu Heif Beach on Saturday.
The stunning win delivered Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic qualification in volleyball and ended a frustrating run of near misses at the continental level.
Mbah and Bawa also gained revenge over the Moroccan duo, having previously lost to them during the group stage of the championship.
The Nigerians maintained their composure in the opening set to secure a 21-18 victory before producing an even more dominant display in the second, winning 21-10 to seal the continental crown alongside the Olympic ticket.
Reacting to the feat Nigeria Volleyball Federation President, Musa Nimrod congratulated the players and technical team in a message shared via the federation’s WhatsApp media channel.
Gumel described the qualification as a victory for the entire country and hailed the players, coaches and media for their contribution to the success.
Nigeria had previously finished second at the African Beach Volleyball Championship on three occasions, but each of those campaigns ended without an Olympic qualification ticket.
Beach volleyball was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games in the 1992 Games in Barcelona as a demonstration event, and has been an official Olympic sport since 1996.
It was introduced as an official Olympic sport in 1996. A total of 24 teams take part in each beach volleyball Olympic tournament.
Teams qualify on the basis of their performance in International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) events over the course of about 18 months before the Olympic Games.
By James Agberebi
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Source: Complete Sports
