The Gambia hosted the CAVB U18 Beach Volleyball Development Cup 2025, welcoming 11 countries as they battled for supremacy with various medals at stake.
All games were played at Kasumai Beach as the Gambia showed their mettle in the sport on the African continent.
The smiling coast welcomed Africa’s most promising young beach volleyball players from the 4th to 6th September.
The host beat Senegal in the quarterfinals 21-9, 21-21, before seeing off Morocco in the semifinals by a 3-1 scoreline.
The Girls duo, Mariama Sambou, and Hoja Njie beat Morocco and set up a final against Congo who saw off Nigeria in the semifinals.
Gambia suffered heartbreak as Congo crown champions. Congo edged the Gambia in both set 1 and set 2, 21-14, and 21-18 win in the second set.
For the boys, they lived up to the mantra “Our Land, Our Cup”, by beating Sierra Leone. Gambia took both the two set with 21-17 21-15 points respectively. to be crowned champions of the CAVB U18 Beach Volleyball Championships in front of the home crowd.
The Gambian team will now go to Qatar for a one month camp before participating in the U18 World Beach Volleyball championship between 7-11 October in Qatar.
The competition (CAVB U18 Beach Volleyball Development Cup 2025) is a collaborative effort between the Olympic solidarity and the FIVB as part of preparation for the Youth Olympic Games 2026, which gives Youth Athletes high-level competition.
This is the first time that the CAVB is coming to the Gambia, and the continental body had a CAVB international referee course. Held on Monday 1 September, led by Brazilian referee expert Mr Elzir Martins. The technical training saw the participation of 22 candidates from 20 different national federations and an additional 7 observers taking part.
As one of the countries approved for a development project, staging the event demonstrates its ambition to establish itself as a hub for youth beach volleyball in the region.
The FIVB’s Volleyball Empowerment Initiative has seen Gambia secure approval for a 12-month youth beach volleyball program.” Sambou noted.
Coach Amadou Jarju spoke to TAT Sports on the sidelines
“We are delighted to host the U18 Championship in the Gambia, I think the CAVB saw our progress and performances recently in beach volleyball for them to put their trust on us. Of course, they see the climate of the Gambia is similar to that of Senegal where the Youth Olympics will be hosted, hosting the Youth Development Cup will help participating countries acclimatize with the weather.” He indicated
“We beat Morocco and Senegal, as far as Beach volleyball is concerned Morocco is bigger than us. The current CAVB president is from Morocco, and they are the African champions in the senior category. They are powerful when it comes to beach volleyball. It’s a great achievement for us; it serves as a motivation to players. When our players start to win against these big nations at this level and time, it will help them in our next championship that’s the world championship. We are happy to win against such nig names. We aim to go to elite level, now there is lots of interest when it comes to beach volleyball in the Gambia. The team is ready to learn and will push them more in the world championship.
This course will help Gambian referees a lot, now we go for competition quite a lot. We always pay for referees close to $1000 for every competition. Now we can at least go with our own referees.”
Mariama Sambou relished the joy of playing in front of home fans……
“We are playing here in front of our families and fans,which motivates us a lot to play and to do what we are known for. While we were in Algeria and Nigeria, we couldn’t win because of the lack of home support.
Egypt beat us twice in Nigeria, despite us putting on a great fight. This time, we prepared for them mentally and physically for them not to win us. It wasn’t easy, but we ended up winning them.
We always fight to have a decent position in the podium. It’s a learning process; we are beating countries that had beaten us earlier. We trained both in the morning and afternoon. It’s a good test for us ahead of the world championship”
Podium CAVB U-18 Beach Volleyball Youth Development Cup Banjul 2025
Boys
Gold Medal Gambia Bakary /Bah
Silver Sierra Leone Sulay/Alle
Bronze Medal Ghana – Justice/Dan
Girls
Gold Medal Congo – Honorine/KERENE
Silver Gambia Njie/Sambou
Bronze Medal Nigeria – Pamela/Faustina
