Kwiek is confident of another podium for Dominican Republic

TIJUANA, Mexico, June 17, 2010 – Dominican Republic is the only team with podium positions in all the eight previous editions of the women’s Pan American Cup and its Brazilian coach Marcos Kwiek hopes this time is not different despite his team is playing in the tough Pool A against teams of Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and Canada. Venezuela was a last minute withdrawal.

“Our goal is to finish again among the top three teams and we can use to our advantage the fact of playing in the tougher Pool A,” said Kwiek during the press conference held on Thursday night.

The Pool B consists of Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and USA.

Here are the excerpts of the coaches’ statements during the press conference held at Tijuana Grand Hotel before the General Technical Meeting:

Horacio Bastit (ARG): “The foundation of the group is the team that won the silver medal in the South American Games. We are starting a renovation process looking towards the 2012 Olympic Games and we hope to have a good competition. We are in a tough pool but we are confident of our chances.”

Luiz Omar de Moura (BRA): “This is a very important competition for the young team of Brazil. Our objective is to take advantage of the opportunity to play against great national selections of the world. It will be very important for the seasoning of this young Brazilian team.”

Arnd Ludwig (CAN): “We have a good team this time and I hope we can bring it to the court. We are really happy to have Sarah Pavan back in our team and I think she will help to bring the team to a new level.”

Braulio Godinez (CRC): “Some of our players had to stay in Costa Rica due to working commitments. We are going to use this tournament to evaluate the young talent we have been training for the World Championship. Our goal is to play the best we can.”  

Juan Carlos Gala (CUB): “We have a young team with only four or five players from last Olympic Games.  The recent tournaments in China and Montreux really helped our preparation for this Cup and our goal is to qualify to the World Grand Prix.”

Marcos Kwiek (DOM): “We are going to start the Cup playing in a very tough pool. Cuba is coming off a great tournament in Montreux and Brazil is always a tough opponent. Argentina played recently in Puerto Rico and Canada always plays good against Dominican Republic. This is going to be a tough competition and our goal is to finish among the top three and we can use to our advantage the fact of playing in the tougher pool.”

José A. Bernal (MEX): “We are going to participate with our junior team with girls of U-18 and U-20 as we are preparing our side for the NORCECA Continental Junior Tournament which will be held here following the Pan American Cup.”

Choel Yong Kim (PER): “We have a good combination and need to put everything together. We are going to give our best and the level of enthusiasm is very high. We have two very important players in our middle blocker Yulissa Zamudio and the outside hitter Patricia Soto.”

Carlos Cardona (PUR): “We intend to achieve the same level we attained in last year’s NORCECA Continental. We are going to use this tournament as a bridge towards the World Championship before playing in the Central American and Caribbean Games and the World Grand Prix.”

Francisco Cruz (TRI): “We are still in a growing process but the good thing is that we continue to improve with each competition. We have a very talented group of players and the Pan American Cup will be a great help for their development.”

Hugh McCutcheon (USA): “We are very excited to be in Mexico participating in the Pan American Cup which is a wonderful event. We are bringing a mix of youth and experience and hopefully we can achieve the goal of qualifying to the 2011 World Grand Prix.”