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Five countries to play qualifier to WCH in French St Martin
Marigot, French St Martin, August 30, 2012 – Teams of Anguilla,
Antigua & Barbuda, Bermuda, Dutch Sint Marteen and French St
Martin are rearing and ready to rumble in the first round FIVB
Men’s World Championship Qualification Tournament NORCECA Group
D from August 31 to September 2.
Most teams have indicated that the plan “A” is to win and plan
“B” is if they don’t win then qualify for the next round.
The top three teams will advance to next year’s second round of
the competition towards the quadrennial world event to take
place in several cities of Poland in 2014.
Antigua are currently placed 18th in the NORCECA
Rankings as of January 12 while Anguilla are positioned in the
24th position.
Bermuda’s coach Bill Bucci said that his team is chartering in
new waters so he is threading cautiously.
“This is the second time that we are playing in a competition of
this nature so we don’t know what to expect but we are hoping to
be in the top three to qualify for the next round,” he noted.
After four months of solid training and external assistance from
coaches from Brazil and Czech Republic, Antigua & Barbuda might
have the material to win the zone.
Fitzroy Benjamin, coach of Antigua Barbuda, gave his views. “We
have played the two St. Maarten teams as well as Anguilla on
numerous occasions, the only team that we have not really seen
before is Bermuda but if we play our brand of volleyball we will
not have to worry too much about the competition,” he said.
Anguilla’s coach Jason Liburd said that his team has learnt
from mistakes made in the past.
“We have met these teams several times before and felt that we
could have beaten them and now we are at a stage where we feel
that we have paid our dues, done our time and this tournament
is our turn to come out on top” he intimated.
Coach of St. Martin - Jean Luc Lizen was reserved in saying that
his main objective was to qualify for the next event but his
captain Quellery Paul had a slightly different view. “We expect
a very competitive tournament because everyone has come here to
win and we are no different from them,” he said.
Raymond Jacobs head coach of St. Maarten have sized up the
competition and concluded that St. Maarten is in with a very
good chance as well.
“We expect to pour in a good showing, we have played many of
these teams before and what they bring to the table we can
match,” he said in a confident tone.
This is the fifth first-round men’s event held within NORCECA
this year. The previous ones were played in St Lucia, El
Salvador, British Virgin Islands and Costa Rica.
The competition schedule is as follows:
August 31
09: 00 French St Martin v Bermuda
11:00 Dutch Sint Marteen v Antigua
18:00 Dutch Sint Marteen v Anguilla
20:00 French St Martin v Antigua
September 1
09:00 Anguilla v Antigua
11:00 Dutch Sint Marteen v Bermuda
18:00 Bermuda v Antigua
20:00 French St Martin v Anguilla
September 2
09:00 Bermuda v Anguilla
11:00 French St Martin v Dutch Sint Marteen
Results of the previous FIVB World Championships 2014 NORCECA
first round men’s tournaments:
Group B at St Lucia (April 27-29)
1.St Lucia, 2.St Vincent & Grenadines, 3.Grenada, 4.St Eustatius
Group C at El Salvador (May 18-20)
1.Honduras, 2.Panama, 3.El Salvador, 4. Turks & Caicos
Group F at British Virgin Islands (June 6-8)
1.Dominica, 2.St Kitts & Nevis, 3.British Virgin Islands,
4.Montserrat
Group H at Costa Rica (July 27-29)
1.Guatemala, 2.Costa Rica, 3.Nicaragua, 4.Belize
The top three teams of each tournament advance to next round |
