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PLEASANTVILLE, San Fernando, Trinidad, July 6,
2022 - Barbados, the perennial kings and
six-time winners, including the last four
editions will not be present to defend their
title at the 2021 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball
Association Junior Men (Under-21) Championship
which serves off at the Southern Regional
Indoor Sports Arena on Thursday, meaning a first
time champion will be crowned from the five
competing teams.
Host, T&T who ended in third spot at the last
edition in 2019 in Martinique and have a best
finish of silver in 2015 will be keen to stamp
their authority on home soil, but will be hard
pressed to do so against the quartet of
formidable opponents in 2017/2018 runner-up
Haiti, US Virgin Islands and Suriname, the
latter two yet to make their at this age-group
level.
The five competing men's teams will contest a
straight round-robin series due to the late
withdrawal of Martinique, champions in 1999, and
their respective coaches while worried by their
team's preparations all expressed hope that once
they play to their true potential, capturing the
title wont be beyond their charges,
Under-21 Men:
ISAAC RAPHAEL (US Virgin Islands):
"The boys got to train for only about two days
so our preparation has not been that ideal.At
the same time, we have some older players
returning to the team, but the core of the team
is mainly a young one as we are in a
developmental stage. So during the tournament I
really looking forward to seeing them grow,
compete and fight as hard as they can as a team
and hopefully it will be good enough for us to
have some success as I do believe we will be
able to hold our own."
PEER NASSEIR (Trinidad and Tobago):"We
are the underdogs in this category and we will
surely be using the approach on the cautious and
optimistic side since each of these teams are
unknowns and will also be eager to take home the
crown."
ANTOINE VLIET (Suriname):
"I expect that this age-group will be much more
competitive as there are more teams firstly and
with the older players you tend to get a higher
level of play as well.
"We are looking forward to playing as much as
possible and we are aiming to win the title as
we have the believe we have the best possible
group of players that we could have selected.
DERISIER SARTRE (Haiti assistant):
"We had one month to prepare the team and our
problem is that we don't know the level of the
other teams in the competition to give a proper
prediction on our chances. However, we are very
confident in our chances and we are confident of
doing our best and we will see if it is good
enough for us to win."
STEVE DAVIS (Jamaica):
"Our chances of winning this tournament is as
good as any team we believe. Even though we have
been hampered by some students and their school
examinations and a short preparation time, we
intend to give off our best and we are expecting
great things from this group of players." |
