?More than 20 teams (two play­ers each) are ex­pect­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion Beach Cham­pi­onship at Saith Park, Ch­agua­nas from 6 pm to­day. Lead­ing the list of qual­i­fiers for the two-day tour­na­ment are de­fend­ing men's and women's win­ners, Nan­cy Joseph and El­ki Phillip, and Chris­t­ian Fran­cois and Kevin Rivers. How­ev­er, the ti­tle-hold­ers are ex­pect­ed to face stiff com­pe­ti­tion in a bid to hold on­to their crowns. Among the ex­pect­ed chal­lengers are last year's run­ners-up, Nadiege Hon­ore and Ayan­na Dyette in the women, and Gideon Dick­son and Nolan Tash among the men. In ad­di­tion, the team of Fa­bi­en Whit­field and Daniels William, who have been com­pet­ing on the Norce­ca Cir­cuit in re­cent weeks should pro­vide a good bat­tle.

Lo­cals blanked in Mex­i­co

The T&T pairs of Nan­cy Joseph and El­ki Phillip (women) and Daniels William and Fa­bi­en Whit­field (men) failed for the sec­ond time to win a match at the Norce­ca Con­ti­nen­tal Beach Vol­ley­ball Tour­na­ment in Man­zanil­lo, Col­i­ma, Mex­i­co on the week­end. Com­pet­ing in the two-day tour­na­ment which was held in ho­n­our of Ale­jan­dro Sali­nas de la Garza, the late pres­i­dent of Mex­i­can Na­tion­al Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion (FMVB), Joseph and Phillip, the T&T na­tion­al women's champs, were beat­en in their two match­es. On Fri­day, at the Ho­tel Club Mae­va Sta­di­um, Joseph and Phillip went un­der to Cana­da II, Tam­my Thomas and Jamie Broder 21�12, 21�12 and one day lat­er Cos­ta Ri­can duo, In­grid Morales and Na­talia Al­faro out­classed the lo­cal pair, 21�9, 21�13. In the men's com­pe­ti­tion, Cana­di­ans, Josh Bin­stock and Matt Zby­sews­ki de­feat­ed William and Whit­field 21�10, 21�11, while an­oth­er Cana­di­an pair, Ray­mond Sewell and Mar­tin Read­er had a sim­i­lar straight sets win, 21�13, 21�13. It was the sec­ond straight tour­na­ment in Mex­i­co, the T&T teams had failed to reach the main draw knock­out af­ter play­ing win­less in the fifth-leg of the 2009 Beach Vol­ley­ball Cir­cuit, in Cal­i­for­nia, Mex­i­co.