Although the Nigerian Volleyball Federation (NVBF)failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games because of poor prepa-rations, it said its national and international activities were met.

The continental qualifiers for the 29th Olympiad was held among eight countries in Dur-ban, South Africa, in February.Algeria and Egypt eventually qualified to represent Africa at the Games.

However, the country conso-led itself with its good perfor-mances at other international competitions.The federation through its five-year partnership with their English counterparts took part in a three-day invitational tour-nament in Sheffield in December to start preparations for the Lon-don 2012 Olympics.

They also participated at the President Invitational Volleyball Championship in Kharzakstan in August and the African Junior Championship in Tunisia in September.

NVBF Secretary, Bode Duro-toye said the federation also did well at the national level, hosting a number of competitions except one.

Durotoye told the News A-gency of Nigeria (NAN) that the federation failed to host only the annual Governor Gabriel Suswan National Open Volley-ball Championships which usually held in Makurdi, Benue State.

He said NVBF's inability to host the tournament was becau-se it coincided with the National Sports Festival, scheduled to hold in November 2008.

The festival to be hosted by Kaduna State was postponed to February 2009.

He said that the local com-petitions hosted by the fede-ration were the Famous Top 8 National Volleyball League and the National Division two and three League in Minna, Niger State.

Others are the Inspector-Ge-neral of Police National Open Volleyball Championships held in Abuja and the Gumel National Open Volleyball Championships in Gumel, Jigawa State.

Durotoye described as a wa-tershed the first edition of the famous National Division One League held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where N2.8 million was paid out as prize money.

Apart from the prizes, he said the standard of play at the Top 8 competition and others had remained as the bench mark for subsequent events.

"The parameters set by the host of Famous National Divi-sion One League in terms of the monetary reward and quality of play has been a tall order for others," he said.