Nigel Si­mon

T&T women's team topped the Caribbean Zon­al phase of the Norce­ca Beach Vol­ley­ball qual­i­fiers for the 2012 Lon­don Olympic Games af­ter con­trast­ing vic­to­ries at the Beach Courts, Saith Park, Ch­agua­nas, yes­ter­day. Need­ing a "Gold­en Set" to get the bet­ter of Cu­ra­cao in their semi­fi­nal match on Sat­ur­day night, the lo­cal women pair­ings of El­ki Phillip and Pauline Woodroffe, and Ayan­na Dyette and Kel­ly-Anne Bil­ingy swept past ri­vals Bar­ba­dos in two match­es in the best of three sets fi­nal.

First on court, Phillip and Woodroffe de­feat­ed An­t­hazia Ma­son and Sharon Bovell 21-16, 21-18, while a sub­dued Billingy and Dyette bat­tled past Shari Matthews and Ani­cia Wood in three tough sets, 21-18, 18-21, 16-14 to claim top spot. Both T&T and Bar­ba­dos women's team had al­ready qual­i­fied for the next stage of Olympic qual­i­fi­ca­tion to be played in June next year and they were joined by Ja­maica and Cu­ra­cao who won in "Gold­en Sets" over US Vir­gin Is­lands and Suri­name re­spec­tive­ly in their play­off match­es.

How­ev­er, the men's top lo­cal pair­ing of Daneil Williams and Fabi­an Whit­field were up­staged by Ba­hamas duo, Re­nal­do Knowles and Muller in a "Gold­en Set" de­cider 15-11 af­ter the tie was locked at 1-1.

Yes­ter­day's Re­sults

Gold medal match

Kel­ly-Anne Billingy/Ayan­na Dyette (T&T) bt Ani­cia Wood/Shari Matthews (Bar­ba­dos) 21-18, 18-21, 16-14

Pauline Woodroffe/El­ki Phillip (T&T) bt An­t­hazia Ma­son/Sharon Bovell (Bar­ba­dos) 21-16, 21-18

Men's play­offs

Elmelin­do Rob­les De Med­i­na/Fran­sua An­gela (Aru­ba) lost to Win­ston Git­tens/El­wyn Ox­ley (B'dos) 12-21, 17-21. Kyran Li-fo-Sjoe/Quin­ten Antony (Cu­ra­cao) lost to Wayne Scott/An­dre Mc Lean (Ja­maica) 17-21, 9-21.Mitchel Daniel/Ear­genell De Cu­ba (Aru­ba) bt Hugh Sealy/Ja­mal Nedd (B'dos) 21-7, 21-9

Gi­an­dro Tokaay/Humprey Vru­taal (Cu­ra­cao) bt Del­lon Brown/Stephen Yee Sing (Ja­maica) 21-15, 21-19.

Wayne Scott/An­dre Mc Lean (Ja­maica) bt Gi­an­dro Tokaay/Humprey Vru­taal (Cu­ra­cao) 15-13 (Gold­en Set).

Win­ston Git­tens/El­wyn Ox­ley (B'dos) bt Mitchel Daniel/Ear­genell De Cu­ba (Aru­ba) 15-12 (Gold­en Set)

Gold medal match: Fa­bi­en Whit­field/Daneil Williams (T&T) bt Princ­tanique Wil­son/By­ron Fer­gu­son (Ba­hamas) 21-15, 21-16 .Chris­t­ian Fran­cois/Kevin Rivers (T&T) lost to Re­nal­do Knowles/Muller Pe­tit (Ba­hamas) 23-21, 15-21, 12-15. Fa­bi­en Whit­field/Daneil Williams (T&T) lost to Re­nal­do Knowles/Muller Pe­tit (Ba­hamas) 15-11 (Gold­en Set)