NAIROBI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has signed Italian volleyball coach Shailene Ramdoo to direct the national women's team ahead of the Intercontinental Olympic qualifying tournament set for August.

Kenya will face Italy, who finished second at the World Championships, the Netherlands and Belgium in the qualifiers, which will be played in Italy from August 2-4.

"The foreign coach will come help raise the level of competition and the game of our girls and increase our chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics," said Waithaka Kioni, the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) chairman, on Wednesday.

The Italian coach will work with local tacticians to select a team of 20 players to start the preparations for the qualifiers.

David Lung'aho, KVF technical director, said, "We are planning to start our preparations in April. Currently our players are with their clubs preparing for the continental club championship."

The six four-team round-robin women's pools will see the winners secure direct Olympic ticket to join Japan, who have qualified as hosts.

The qualification for the Tokyo Olympic women's volleyball tournament features 12 berths: host Japan, the winners of each of six intercontinental qualifying tournaments, and five continental qualification tournament champions.

The five continental qualifying competitions will start in January 2020. Teams already qualified for the Olympics are not eligible to play in the following qualification tournaments.