Author: MBONILE BURTON
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE prestigious East Africa Volleyball Championship that was halted by Coronavirus scare has now been shifted to the country’s Capital Dodoma but it will be staged next year.
Christened Mirjam East African Championship, the event was previously scheduled to stage its showdown in Mwanza before moving to Dodoma city for the first time.
Mwanza based Home Life Sports (HOLIS) are the organisers of the event and through its Chairman Majaliwa Mayunga, the event will for the first time held in Dodoma and would be known as ‘East Africa Volleyball Championship’.
He said that preparation has already started for the event whose official date is June 2021 and will be staged in Dodoma for the first time after two previous editions in Mwanza.
“We are eager to see Dodoma stage a beautiful event that will thrill fans as we expect a high-level volleyball there.
“I have been allowed to make it an East Africa volleyball Championship, with a slogan ‘Twendeni Dodoma’.”
The tournament that was scheduled to take Mwanza by storm from June 24th to 27th this year at Mirongo Sports Centre could not be staged as planned due to Coronavirus scare.
Preparation for the event, according to the official didn’t go as planned due to global Covid-19 threat, therefore they opted to cancel.
Mayunga said that the event will draw teams from East Africa Community (EAC) member states and will be open.
As part of promoting the game, the organisers have also opened door for junior Under-18 teams to spice up the competition’s challenge.
Mayunga said that since they could not manage to organise this year’s event they have decided to start early preparations so that to give teams a chance to plan for the tournament.
Mayunga said they plan to extend invitation to teams from EAC bloc so as to give local teams’ platform to learn from foreign teams, and as well, to get international exposure to develop the game.
Hefty cash prizes have been also arranged for the winners of the tournament besides a coveted trophy.
The prize for the winners is 5m/- as the top prize while the runners up will pocket 3mil/- and 2m/- cash prize will be awarded to the second runners up.
