Final NORCECA call to Nanjing in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 7, 2014 – The final NORCECA Beach Volleyball Qualifiers towards the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China will take place in Carolina, Puerto Rico on April 12-13.

Twelve pairs will be battling for the last two places of a total of six per gender granted to NORCECA Confederation for the beach competition in Nanjing.

Teams from the four zonal associations within NORCECA –ECVA, CAZOVA, AFECAVOL and CENTRAL- have already qualified boys and girls teams to the Olympics in previous regional competitions.

The girls’ teams with tickets to the Nanjing event are: St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, United States and Guatemala while the boys’ teams are: St Vincent, Jamaica, Canada and Guatemala.

“Once again we are going back to Carolina for what should be an exciting event with the best youth talent from all the corners of NORCECA competing for the Olympic dream,” said Nelson Perez Cruz, president of the Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation.

“We must thank the municipality of Carolina for its unconditional support to host this event in Puerto Rico,” Perez Cruz added.

NORCECA President Cristobal Marte Hoffiz said he is looking forward to have a brilliant event in Puerto Rico.

“We know about the organization capabilities of the Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation so there was not any doubt when we granted the hosting of the last event towards Nanjing,” Marte Hoffiz said from the headquarters in Santo Domingo.

The girls’ event features players from Suriname, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Antigua, El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The teams competing in the boys’ tournament are Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominica, St Lucia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Arnaldo Sanchez, technical director of the tournament, said the competition format consists of a pool play preliminary phase with the top eight pairs advancing to a single elimination bracket.

The Beach Volleyball events of the Youth Olympic Games will be held in the Nanjing Youth Olympic Park from 17 to 27 of August.

A total of 144 athletes -72 males and 72 females- are scheduled to compete in the second edition of the Youth Games.