T&T beach vballers off to U-19 Worlds in China

This country’s junior men and women’s beach volleyball teams of Jerome Morrison and Darion Sparks and Meeka Johnson and L’fe Roberts departed Piarco on Friday for China, where they will contest the FIVB World Championship Under-19 Beach Volleyball Tournament in Shangluo from August 27 to September 1.

Shangluo is a city in the central Chinese province of Shaanxi, and the competition venue is situated on Qinling Museum Square in the Shangzhou District of the city.

Last May, the T&T girls qualified for the tournament when they ended as runners-up in a five-team round-robin series of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA)/Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Qualifiers at the Courland Beach Sports Facility in Black Rock, Tobago.

This comes after Cayman Islands’ Joanna Robinson and Luna Ebanks ended with an unbeaten 4-0 record at the end of their round-robin series, with T&T finishing in the second spot at 3-1.

In the tournament decider, Robinson and Ebanks overcame Roberts and Johnson in the winner-take-all clash 2-1 (21-9, 11-21, 15-9).

Earlier on in the two-day event, Roberts and Johnson beat Jewel Austin and Marilyn Gill of Barbados 2-0 (21-12, 21-19); Celine Hankey and Makayla Mason of Grenada 2-0 (21-10, 21-2); and Naya Whitfield and Davy-Ann Eduards of Aruba 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).

In China, Roberts, who now attends Florida Memorial University (FMU), and Johnson have been placed in the 28-team main draw along with Nigeria, Uruguay, Austria, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Spain, Costa Rica, Australia, Argentina, Morocco, Colombia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Holland, China (two), Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, USA, Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Czechia, and Germany, with 24 teams contesting the one-day elimination qualifiers from which four teams will advance to the main draw.

For the men’s main draw, T&T is joined by Sierra Leone, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Finland, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China, Thailand, Chile, Iran, Denmark, Holland, Lebanon, Nigeria, Australia, Germany, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Hungary, Namibia, Costa Rica, and Switzerland, while 24 teams will contest the qualifiers, from which four teams will advance from the one-day elimination competition to the main draw.

Speaking prior to their departure, Sean Morrison, coach of the T&T team, said preparations for the championship were good.

Morrison added, “The boys managed to get in some good work after being part of the national youth teams for the CAZOVA Youth Indoor Championships in Jamaica last month, while for the girls, there was a slight hiccup in Johnson having to do some training on her own and with the use of other players after Roberts went off to university in the USA.

“Our expectation for the teams is really for us to try and get out of the group stage and then take it from there. We know the tournament will be of a very high level, and we just have to focus on taking it one match at a time,” said Morrison.

The main draw for each gender will start with 32 teams divided into eight single round-robin pools of four, at the end of which the top three from each pool’s final standings will progress to the single-elimination stage.

The eight pool winners will advance directly to the round of 16, while the runners-up and the eight third-placed teams in the pools advance to the round of 24 to determine the remaining eight last-16 teams.

The eight winners will then qualify for the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals and finals for the gold and silver medals, while the two losers of the semifinals will contest the third-place match.

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