Top T&T men's beach volleyball pair Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams will lead three local pairs, into battle when the sixth edition of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Circuit serves off at Pigeon Point, St Lucia from today until Sunday.
In addition to Whitfield and Williams, who are coming off a 12 straight wins in the T&T Volleyball Federation national team selection qualifiers for the Norceca Continental Olympic Qualifiers on Monday night, T&T will be represented by the top two women's teams in Ayana Dyette and Malika Davidson, as well as Elki Phillip and Shenelle Gordon.
Last year, no tournament was held in St Lucia, however, two years ago, the Toco-born pair of Whitfield and Williams, placed eighth.Following their victory in the qualifiers, Whitfield and Williams played unbeaten at the National Beach Volleyball Developmental Centre, against three other pairs on Monday night.
Back on September 13, in Florida Whitfield and 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 18-21, 21-19, 15-12 to add to a similar finish on home soil at Mission Beach, Toco, three years ago.
The top three finish for the T&T men, who were also fifth in the Fourth-leg at the end of August in Varadero, Cuba, capped off a run of nine tournaments, two on the FIVB World Tour, Pan Am Games in Ontario, Canada, two in California Tournaments and four legs of the Norceca 2015 Circuit.
On the tour, the T&T men also won the CBVA's Manhattan Beach Open after reaching the last eight at the Pan American Games in July and the California Cup gold medal match.
So far this season,Williams and Whitfield have competed at all five stops of the Norceca 2015 Tour beginning with a ninth placed in Cayman Islands in April; ninth at the second stop in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in June and 14th in North Bay, Canada in August.
The Toco boys along with Josiah Eccles and Tevin Joseph were T&T representatives during the first round of the Norceca Olympic Beach Qualifiers held in T&T earlier this year, and have already secured one of the two team spots for the second round of the Olympic qualifiers which will also take place later this year.
In the women's competition, Dyette and Davidson will be competing in their fifth event after missing the first stop in Cayman Islands while Phillip and Gordon will be taking their season bow.
The pair of Apphia Glasgow and La Teisha Joseph were eighth at the first stop in Cayman Islands after which Dyette and Davidson, first year partners ended 13th in Punta Cana; 15th in North Bay; ninth in Cuba, and 13th in Florida.
However, the duo is unbeaten at home in their last seven National qualifying events, including the last two over the past ten days at Chaguanas and enters today's tournament on a high.Dyette and Davidson are also in prime position to earn half of the national women's places for the second round of their Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Jamaica later this year.
Following the conclusion of this weekend's Norceca Tournament, the tour shifts to Guatemala City (November 3-9) before concluding in T&T (November 11-16).