Bhubaneswar: Odisha will be hosting back-to-back Senior National Volleyball Championships (men and women) for the first time.
Having successfully conducted the 68th Senior Nationals last year, Odisha Volleyball Association under the aegis of Volleyball Federation of India will be organizing the 69th edition at Biju Patnaik Indoor Stadium, KIIT Deemed to be University, from March 5 to 11.
In another first, all matches will be played on indoor courts and will be streamed live.
Apart from the Senior Nationals, Odisha has previously staged the 36th Junior Nationals in 2009 and 41st Sub-Junior Nationals in 2019. All these major volleyball tournaments have been held at KIIT premises.
The 69th Senior National Championships will bring together over 1200 men and women volleyball players from 28 states and 8 union territories.
The union territory Ladakh will be fielding a team for the first time.
The Indian volleyball team for the upcoming Asian Championship will be selected on the basis of performance in this championship.
The meet will be conducted as per COVID-19 guidelines of Odisha government.
Prof. Achyuta Samanta, who is the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) president, assured full support for conducting the prestigious tournament in a befitting manner and wished luck to the players, coaches, managers and technical officials taking part in the meet.