The third and final tournament in the first round of the CAZOVA zonal

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, October 30, 2016: The third and final tournament in the first round of the CAZOVA zonal qualifying series for the 2018 FIVB Men’s World Volleyball Championships serves off here today at the Anthony Nesty Indoor Sports Hall.

Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos and hosts Suriname will be participating in a straight round-robin event in Group B over the next two days for two places into the second round.

The team from Guadeloupe, ranked tenth in CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) and third in this tournament, arrived extremely late after experiencing technical difficulties on the airplane and being forced to change their flight.

The coaches of the teams spoke about their expectations from this tournament following this morning preliminary enquiry.

Verdy Groudw, SURINAME (ranked 4th in CAZOVA) – “We are expecting to win the tournament, but the schedule changed because of the late arrival of the Guadeloupe team. We now have to play our toughest opponents (Jamaica) first instead of last and I hope this does not affect our focus.”

Gatasheu Bonner, JAMAICA (6th) – “We are here to give our best and expect to qualify. We expect the competition to be tough.”

Oliver Ishmael, GUADELOUPE (10th) – “We are hoping for first or second place, but it will be difficult because we arrived very late. I hope the guys are not tired.”

Donnovan Garvey, TURKS & CAICOS (13th) – “Our primary focus in Turks & Caicos is to develop the sport. We have a very inexperienced team, we only got this group of guys six weeks ago.”

Tournament schedule

SUNDAY

Morning session

Suriname vs Jamaica

Guadeloupe vs Turks & Caicos

Night session

Jamaica vs Guadeloupe

Suriname vs Turks & Caicos

MONDAY

Night session

Jamaica vs Turks & Caicos

Suriname vs Guadeloupe