T&T duo of Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams spiked a second ever bronze medal on the Norceca Beach Volleyball Tour when they came from a set down to beat Canada-B duo Dan Dearing and Garrett May at the Hickory Point Beach Sand Volleyball Complex in Tavares, Florida on Sunday.
Fifth placed finishers in the Fourth-leg at the end of August in Varadero, Cuba, Whitfield and Williams won the bronze medal, 18-21, 21-19, 15-12 to add to a similar finish on home soil at Mission Beach, Toco, three years ago.
The showing by the local pair who returned home yesterday capped off a run of nine tournaments, two on the FIVB World Tour, Pan Am Games in Ontario, Canada, two California Tournaments and four legs of the Norceca 2015 Circuit.
Earlier on in the semifinal round, the T&T men, winners of the CBVA's Manhattan Beach Open on Sunday last, went under to Pan American Games champions, Mexico's Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen 20--22, 12-21.
It was the third defeat in-a-row for Whitfield and Williams against the Central American in recent times, after suffering a similar faith at the Pan American Games quarterfinal stage in July and the California Cup gold medal match last month.
On Saturday, the T&T men who are through to the next phase of qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil as part of the four-member T&T team won 21-16, 21-11 over Barbadians Elwyn Oxley and Ronald Rice to improve to 3-0 in Pool C round-robin play.
This after they defeated Baydr Sajia and Jason Cabral of Belize 21-13, 21-11 and David Mackenzie and Jeffery Samuels of USA-C 21-17, 21-15 on Friday in their first two matches.
However, with a chance at a perfect 4-0 record in the five-team round-robin group, Whitfield and Williams went under to Puerto Ricans, Sergio Figueroa and Arnel Cabrera 21-18, 13-21, 11-15 to end with a 3-1 pool record, the same as their opponents and USA-C duo Mackenzie and Samuels.
But the T&T pair ended at the top of the group based on a points co-efficient ratio of 1.24 to USA-C's 1.22 and Puerto Rico's 1.21 and in the quarterfinals swept aside USA-B's Devon Hatcher and Andrew Dentler 21-18, 25-23 by showing good energy before the tournament had to be suspended for safety measures due to lightning and thunderstorms at Tavares.
Lombardo and Virgen went onto the win the gold medal, 21-10, 21-18 over Derek Olson and Jeremy Casebeer USA-A, for their second win of the season.
The Mexicans had started the final day with a 21-12, 14-21, 15-11 victory over David Mackenzie/Jeffery Samuels in their quarterfinal which was postponed from Saturday due to bad weather while Dearing and May, Pool A winners ousted Guatemala's Erik Flores and Wagner Chacon 21-7, 21-15 in their quarterfinal before losing to USA-A's Derek Olson and Jeremy Casebeer 21-14, 24-26, 12-15 for a place in the final.
The USA-A duo dumped Pool B defeated Figueroa and Cabrera, 21-14, 21-8 in their last-eight meeting.In the women's competition, T&T pair Ayana Dyette and Malika Davidson ended in 13th spot ahead of US Virgin Islands' Amber Bennett and Melanie Valenciana on a a better points ration after their playoff match was rained out.
This after the T&T women started Saturday with a loss to Mexicans Zaira Orellana and Stephanie Burnside 25-27, 8-21 to end with a 0-3 record in Pool D after losing to Megan Nagy and Marie Lapointe of Canada-B 12-21, 16-21 and USA-E's Sierra Sanchez and Katherine Plessy, 9-21, 15-21 on Friday.
However, in their 13-16 semifinal, Dyette and Davidson stopped Antigua and Barbuda's Nyota Peters and Rosemarie Simon 21-14, 19-21, 15-10
USVI's Bennett and Valenciana also ended 0-3 in Pool B round-robin play, but defeated Hondurans Gina Flores and Martha Euceda 22-20, 21-15
USA-A Kimberly Dicello and Kendra Van Zwieten won gold after beating USA-B's Delaney Knudsen and Katie Spieler 21-17, 22-24, 15-10. It was Dicello's first gold of the season and Van Zwieten's second.
The next stop on the tour is the sixth leg in Antigua and Barbuda (October 7-12) followed by St Lucia (October 14-19); Guatemala City (November 3-9) and T&T (November 11-16).