THE U-21 junior national volleyball team will start preparations on Friday ahead of this year’s World Junior Championships set for August 22 to September 1 in the Turkish cities of Ankara and Izmir.

The team, which will be training at Amahoro indoor stadium, will be handled by head coach Paul Bitok, who will be assisted by Leonard Nkusi Shinani. Initially, the team will be training three days a week.

Bitok and his boys will hold one-week training camp in Europe ahead of the FIVB World Cup. The national volleyball governing body, FRVB, is planning a "high intensity” training camp in Germany and Holland ahead of their historic debut at the world championships.

FRVB is looking forward to having the camp in early August where the team will play a series of friendly matches before heading to Ankara.

It is also reported that U-21 Volleyball national will compete in this year’s Kampala Amateur as part of the preparations. Four teams qualified to represent Africa at the 2013 Men Junior U21 FIVB Championships.

They include Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda and Morocco, Rwanda, Africa’s bronze medalists,  were been drawn in Pool C alongside Serbia, USA, Canada and Tunisia.

African champions Egypt and silver medalists Morocco were drawn together in Pool A with hosts Turkey, China and India, while Pool B is comprised of Argentina, Iran, Japan, Mexico and Estonia.

In Pool D, Russia will battle Brazil, France, Venezuela and 2012 European champions Italy.