The national U23 volleyball coach Paul Bitok says his youthful team has gained valuable experience from playing against elite opposition in the African youth volleyball championship which ended on Wednesday evening in Egypt.

The team won just one game against Libya and lost the other games against Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, which won the competition after defeating hosts Egypt 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21).

Despite the poor show, Coach Paul Bitok says the team will become better since such top competitions add experience.

 "The results are not what we wanted but we should pick out some positives from our performance because even though we lost, it was very close and against top opposition.

The players lost abit of focus and were also nervous in some games, something that can cost you in such elite competitions,” Bitok said adding that the experience of playing in the competition augurs well for the team.

Tunisia and Egypt, which finished in first and second positions, will represent Africa in next year’s U23 world volleyball championships that will take place in Brazil.

Jean Pierre Ribanje, Rwanda Volleyball Federation Vice President says they will continue boosting the sport from grassroots by organising more inter school competitions.

Rwanda was represented in four youth International competitions last year. Two teams played in the world beach volleyball championship in Poland while the U19 and U21 (boys) teams competed in the world volleyball championship in Mexico and Turkey respectively.

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