T&T will resume its quest for a spot in the Rio Olympic Games men's beach volleyball tournament when the Third Round of the NORCECA Inter-Continental Men's Beach Volleyball Olympic qualifiers involving 11 other teams begins in Pigeon Point, St Lucia today until Sunday.
However, the T&T squad will not be at full strength as Fabien Whitefield, a key member of the top pairing with Daniel Williams did not travel with the squad on Wednesday due to a shoulder injury and was replaced by Christian Francois as the T&T quartet aims to secure a spot in the final round of qualifiers in Acapulco, Mexico, next month.
Williams will now have as his playing partner Simon Blake while Francois will be paired with Colin Bernard.
The omission of Whitfield is a tough loss for T&T, as he along with Williams have been very consistent on the tour this year.
The duo captured a first ever silver medal on the fourth stop of the circuit in Costa Rica last month to add to their three previous bronze medals won since their debut in 2008.
Whitfield and Williams also have a fifth placed finish in Cayman Islands, fourth in Guatemala City's opening leg in March, while they were also ninth (Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico) and sixth in La Paz, Baja, California Sur as well as eighth in their last tournament at the start of the month, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
When the tournament serves off , the T&T men by virtue of their runner-up finish to US Virgin Islands in the second round in January should be on a bye along with USVI and the top two teams from the lone Central American round of qualifiers thus far, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
However, with Francois leaving T&T only yesterday due to the late call-up, it is left to be seen how quickly he will adjust to Bernard.
The performances by Whitfield and Williams have lifted the pair to third overall in the points table with 680, behind USA (900) and Canada (820) while Guatemala (535) and Mexico (480) complete the top five.
Last year when T&T hosted the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Round One qualifiers, Whitfield and Williams and second pair, Tevin Joseph and Josiah Eccles won gold ahead of Jamaica.
This was followed by a runner-up finish in the CAZOVA/Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Second Round series held in Antigua & Barbuda in January of this year where T&T represented by Whitfield and Williams, and Francois/Blake were beaten in the final by US Virgin Islands.
Jamaica took third ahead of fellow qualifiers Curacao and the quartet along with fifth to eighth placed finishers St Lucia, Barbados, St Kitts/Nevis and Suriname will compete against Central America's qualifiers, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador for qualification spots to the Fourth Round.