High on Olympic hopes

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After the historic win of Kerala in the 60th national volleyball championship, a few of the team members are busy now in the Indian Volleyball Camp for Olympic qualifiers held at Thiruchendur in Tamil Nadu.

M.T. Azeez, Tom Joseph, Vibin George, Manu Joseph, Kiran Philip, V. Manu, Kapil Dev and P. Rohit are the Keralites in the camp of 24 that started on April 15.

This time the Indian camp morale is at its best as this is the first time the Indian team is going to participate in the Olympic qualifiers.

“The Olympic qualifiers will be held at Berlin from June 8 onwards. This would be a major event for Indian volleyball,” said G. Sridharan, the Indian Volleyball Coach.

“We are also participating in the Challenge Cup held at China from May 22. This would be a good exposure for the Indian team as a number of foreign teams will be participating in it along India,” he said.

The coach, who is brimming with confidence, said, “We have the best lot of players in the camp. There are a lot of experienced players and youngsters and this is good for us to select the team. All the players are at their best and training well. It will be a difficult task to select the team,” he said.

Moreover, the team has got new sponsors in the Sahara Group. “The players are in a good mood. With the entry of the new sponsors, the players have a lot of hope about the future of the Indian team,” says Tom Joseph, veteran Indian player from Kozhikode, Kerala. If selected, he would be playing in the national team after about three years.

Manu Joseph and Rohith are having their first national senior camp. “This is a good exposure for us. With so many seniors, it is a grooming ground for us,” said Manu Joseph.

Camp members
M.T. Azeez, Dilip Khoiwal, Kapil Dev, Sanjay Singh, Prabhakaran Kakka, Sube Singh, V. Manu, Navjith Singh, G. Pradeep, Tom Joseph, T. Naresh, P. Rohith, Ranjith Singh, Ukkra Pandian, Gurinder Singh, Lalit Kumar, Kanagaraj, T.D. RaviKumar, John Christopher, Selva Prabhu, Naveen Jacob, Vibin M. George, Balvinder Singh, Kiran Philip, Manu Joseph.