Toco-born duo Daneil Williams and Simon Blake will make their season entrance at the first stage of the 2013 Norceca Tour, the fifth edition of the Cayman Islands Beach Volleyball Tournament which spikes off in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, from today (Friday) until Sunday.
It will also mark the first time that both Williams and Blake, who are no strangers to the tour, will be playing as partners.
Williams, who normally partners another Toco-born player, Fabien Whitfield, was forced into having a new teammate for the first tournament of the season after the latter opted out due to exams.
Last year on the tour, Williams and Whitfield combined for a quarterfinal showing in Cayman Islands prior to their historic bronze medal performance at home in November.
Blake also teamed up with Whitfield at the Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, competition in the absence of an injured Williams while he paired with Colin Bernard at home in November.
During the tour, the local pair of Daneil Williams and Fabien Whitfield earned a first ever beach volleyball medal for T&T–a bronze on home soil, last November, to help the locals to an overall men's ranking of joint sixth with Puerto Rico.
T&T will also be represented by the men's team in the Cayman Islands tournament as the T&T Volleyball Federation was unable to field a women's team due to a lack of funds.
On Saturday last, Nancy Joseph and Pauline Woodroffe earned the right to represent T&T in the Cayman Islands after topping the qualifying tournament held at Saith Park, Chaguanas, when they defeated Ayana Dyette and Shenelle Gordon in the final of the four-team round-robin series. However, due to a lack of financial resources, the women's team had to opt out.
In Cayman Islands, American Todd Rogers will be one of the main attractions over the course of the three-day tournament.
Rogers, one of the most famous beach volleyball players of all time, teamed up with Phil Dalhausser to claim the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2007 FIVB World Championship in Gstaad, Switzerland, and in Grand Cayman he will partner Ryan Doherty.
Rogers and Dalhausser also took home the bronze medal at the FIVB 2009 Beach Volleyball World Championship in Stavanger, Norway.
The duo won the title of AVP Circuit for five consecutive years starting in 2007 and also established a record for the most single victories in a season for the FIVB Tour in 2011 when they finished as the top-ranked team in the world.