Mayor of Boca Chica welcomes athletes of NORCECA Tour

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic, April 5, 2012 – The Mayor of Boca Chica welcomed all the athletes taking part in the third leg of the 2012 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit and wished them a pleasant stay in the municipality.

Daniel Ozuna attended the Technical Meeting of the Boca Chica Beach Volleyball Tournament by Presidente on Thursday evening and promised to everyone a warm hospitality from the people of Boca Chica.

“Everyone wants to win the tournament but we all know that only one will succeed but all feel like winners by having you, great athletes, visiting our town,” Ozuna said. “I only want to give you an advice and that is to be athletes with discipline, because discipline can take you farther than your tools.”

The members of the Organizing Committee led by Ramon Garcia, President of the Dominican Volleyball Confederation, presented Ozuna with a plaque to recognize his long time support to the beach volleyball as Boca Chica is hosting the event for seventh consecutive year.

NORCECA Delegate Nelson Ramirez introduced the members of the Control Committee and Garcia pronounced the official words of welcome and announced that next September they will host a Pan American competition in Punta Cana.

Arnaldo Sanchez, Technical Director of the tour, announced the schedule of Friday in both genders. The women will compete in a preliminary pool play before going to a single elimination bracket while the men will compete in a double elimination bracket.

The players, officials and supporting personnel attending the technical meeting observed one minute of silence to remember the late Dr. Andres Pina Del Rosario, former President of NORCECA Medical Commission, who passed away last Sunday.

Eleven women’s teams were distributed as follows:

Pool A: United States, Dominican Republic-1 and Canada, Pool B: Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and Grenadines and Costa Rica, Pool C: El Salvador, Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Dominican Republic-2.

The top two teams of each pool and the two best third placed teams will move into the single elimination competition.

Twenty contests (ten in each gender) divided in two courts are scheduled for the opening day of the competition where teams compete for ranking-points and a total purse of US$10,000.

The women’s schedule of Friday begins at 9:00 with Saint Vincent v Guatemala, followed by the United States v Canada and Mexico v El Salvador.

The men’s program features Bahamas v Jamaica, Puerto Rico-2 v Trinidad and Tobago and Dominican Republic v Grenada.

The first two events of the season took place in Cayman Islands and Guatemala.