T&T senior women volleyballers will depart on June 15 for Lima, Peru where they will compete in the 16th Women’s Pan American Volleyball Cup from June 17 to 25.
Contacted yesterday, Vaughn Martin, a member of the recently installed T&T Volleyball Federation executive confirmed the team’s participation at the prestigious event which offers spots to the different groups of next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix.
The tournament will comprise 12 teams,seven from NORCECA and five from South America and includes T&T which will be making its ninth appearance, defending champion Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA, Canada and Cub while Argentina, Chile, Colombia, host Peru and Venezuela are the teams from South America who will compete based on the world rankings as of January 1, 2017.
The allotment of South Americans will be historic in that its the first time in the history of the Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup five teams from the continent will take part in the intercontinental competition.
With regards to the team’s financial needs to cover the trip, Martin noted that all expenses for the Francisco “Panchee” Cruz T&T women’s team captained by Renele Forde have been met in terms of air-fare for 12 players and five officials to the tune of $153,000-plus while accommodation, meals and ground transport are all covered by the host country, which in this case is Peru.
Last year, when the tournament was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the “Calypso Spikers” ended in tenth spot from 12 teams, to equal their best ever finishes from 2009-2013 while the national women were 12th on debut in 2007 as well as 2008 and 11th in 2014.
The outing in Peru will commence what is hopefully a busy two to three months of international competition for the national women’s volleyball programme as they are expected to then compete at the FIVB World Grand Prix for the first time in Mexico and at home as possibly a third a leg in Australia followed by the Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Championships in Kingston, Jamaica in late July.
However, the T&TVF is still facing up to the possible embarrassment of being banned and fined from the Grand Prix as it awaits confirmation of an estimated $2 million in funding needed ahead of next month’s events.
T&T women have been drawn to face Australia, Mexico and Hungary in its Group Three Week One Pool A-3 series at the Olympic Gymnasium, Aguascalientes City, Mexico, while, Cameroon entertains France, Venezuela and Algeria in Pool B-3 from July 7 to 9 at the Yaounde Multipurpose Sports Complex, Yaounde, Cameroon.
Forde and her team-mates, the undisputed champions of the Caribbean, are then due to host Pool D-3 in their Group Three series from July 14-16 where they will face France, Cameroon and Australia at the National Cycling Centre, in Balmain, Couva while Hungary, Algeria, Mexico and host Venezuela clash in Pool C-3 at Poliedro de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela.
But, with less than a month-and-a-half to go before first serve in Mexico recently-installed president of the T&TVF Nicole Selvon are yet to get confirmation from the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, as well as the Sport Company of T&T (SporTT) on the release of funds.
According to local officials, the Grand Prix is the third highest level of competition of the sport only behind the Olympics and World Championship and for the 2017 edition, the 25th in its history, 32 countries will feature from July 7 to August 6 August with the Group One Final Round to be held in Nanjing, China.
And should T&T fail in its duty to participate and host it can face a possible sanction and ban and fined in excess of US$100,000 as well, which will be a severe blow to the sport locally.
To cap off a busy two months, Forde and company then head to Jamaica with the aim of lifting yet another regional title at the 16th Senior CAZOVA where they face Suriname, Bahamas and US Virgin Islands as top ranked T&T Group D challengers while Jamaica is in Pool E with Curacao, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Two years at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo, France-based Channon Thompson was voted as the Most Valuable Player after leading host T&T to a 25-12, 25-13, 25-12 win over Jamaica in final.
It was a historic first regional triumph on home soil after third and second place finishes in 1993 and 2002 respectively and a record fifth straight crown (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014).
The win took T&T past Barbados which won in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 as the teams with the most wins on the trot.
However, both T&T and Barbados now have the same amount of titles overall, six. Barbados was also crowned champions in 1993 and 1994 while T&T got its first in 1996.
From the eight-team CAZOVA finals, the top two teams overall will again qualify to the Third Round of FIVB World Championship qualification while crowning the eventual champions of CAZOVA.
At the NORCECA Continental, the CAZOVA duo will join the Cuba, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico along with two from Central America and two from the Eastern Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (ECVA) in the top-12 qualification process to determine the eventual qualifiers to the World Championships.
USA has already qualified to the World Championships in Japan in 2018 as the reigning champions and will be joined by seven other teams at the finals.