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GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, April 23, 2015 - The 2015 NORCECA
Beach Volleyball Circuit will serve off at the Seven Miles Beach
on Friday with anyone’s guess who will be standing on top of the
podium when the curtains comes down on the event on Sunday
afternoon.
This year which marks the seventh straight time the tour will
begin in Cayman Islands will feature 33 teams in overall, 17
women and 16 men, who will compete in round-robin groups before
the top two pairs advances to the main draw knockout stage.
On Friday, the Tournament’s Technical Committee headed by long
serving NORCECA Beach Tour, Arnoldo Sanchez, the Tournament
Director and inclusive of Miguel Ramirez (referee delegate),
Humberto Pagan (support staff), Bienvenido Mateo (VIS delegate)
and Daymian Stewart (NORCECA Supervisor) held its Preliminary
Enquiry at the Comfort Suites Hotel at which all the teams were
approved of being ready to compete having met all the necessary
requirements as stated.
A few hours later, the General Technical Meeting took place at
the West Inn Hotel where the 17 women and 16 men teams were all
placed in their respective groups ahead of Friday’s start of
play.
The countries represented in the competition are Barbados,
Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Trinidad &
Tobago and USA.
Speaking at the opening, Kennedy McGowan, the newly installed
Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation President, was quick to
admit that it has been a challenge to put on the event for his
new administration.
“We only came into office in December 2014, and it no terms we
were going to decline hosting the event which kicks off the
season as we have done as an island for the past six years.
“As a new board we were up for the challenge and with some of us
being involved in the staging of the event in the past in some
form of capacity we were able to pull through and as you can we
I think we have done a great job,” said Mc Gowan.
“This year we are hoping not just to put on a good event, but to
try and outdo ourselves and in terms of improving on the crowd
attendance with more seating and a bigger VIP area as well.”
“We also shifted the positioning of the playing courts due to
extra space we were provided with, due to the closing of a road
way, and our overall expectation with the support of our key
sponsors, NORCECA and our Olympic Committee is to have another
great event.”
Mc Gowan, noted that in the past the tournament used to be held
in March, but as of last year and this year it was shifted to
April to coincide with its peak tourist season.
“So for us is much more economical and viable around this time
as a federation we in the Cayman are very proud, honoured as
well as excited to know that we are once again the first stop on
the NORCECA Beach Tour and have the chance to set a very high
bar in terms of hosting an event for the rest of the season.
Stewart also used the opportunity to highlight the work of
Sanchez, whom he said was very influential in having the Beach
Tour started for NORCECA teams when it did.
He also reminded the players gathered the important of the
federation hosting of the tour and teams committing to
participation as it now gives your points towards qualifying for
the World Championship.
President of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee, Donald Mc
Lean in his brief address said his association had given its
full support to the staging of the event over the years and will
continue to do so, by increasing its financial contribution as
well.” |
