The du­os of Jerome Mor­ri­son and Jahreef Miguel (men) and Adalia Badroe and Kris­tian­na Richards (women) will leave­to­mor­row to com­pete at the NORCE­CA Beach Vol­ley­ball Un­der-23 Con­ti­nen­tal Tour open­er at Juan Do­lio Beach in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic from Fri­day un­til Sun­day.

The tour­na­ment will fea­ture 16 men’s teams in­clu­sive of Cana­da, the USA and the US Vir­gin Is­lands with two teams each; the Cay­man Is­lands, Cos­ta Ri­ca Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, El Sal­vador, Guatemala, Hon­duras, Nicaragua, St Kitts/Nevis, Suri­name and T&T. In the women’s com­pe­ti­tion, 14 teams will com­pete, led by Cana­da and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic with two each; the Cay­man Is­lands, Cos­ta Ri­ca, El Sal­vador, Guatemala, Hon­duras, the US Vir­gin Is­lands, Nicaragua, Puer­to Ri­co, T&T and the USA.

This de­vel­op­men­tal tour­na­ment will serve as an im­por­tant prepara­to­ry plat­form for ath­letes that will com­pete at the 2025 Ju­nior Pan Amer­i­can Games in Asun­ción, Paraguay, from Au­gust 9 to 23.

Last month, both T&T teams warmed up for the tour­na­ment at Juan Do­lio Beach by play­ing un­beat­en over two days to cap­ture their re­spec­tive di­vi­sion­al crowns at the T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion Trin­ba­go Beach Vol­ley­ball Un­der-23 Di­vi­sion Rank­ing Tour­na­ment at Saith Park, Ch­agua­nas.

In the four-team men’s Un­der-23 round-robin com­pe­ti­tion, Mor­ri­son and Miguel, who have rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Un­der-21 Cham­pi­onships, dom­i­nat­ed their ri­vals to end with a per­fect 3-0 win-loss record and a max­i­mum six points, one ahead of Nicholas Williams and De­jaun Williams, while Michael Bur­kett and Janeiro Ather­ley were third with a 1-2 record, and Josi­ah Jankey and Je­re­mi­ah Jankey were fourth af­ter go­ing win­less.

This was af­ter Mor­ri­son and Miguel beat Michael Bur­kett and Janeiro Ather­ley 21-18, 21-16; Josi­ah Jankey and his broth­er Jerome Jankey 21-12, 21-13; and Nicholas Williams and De­jaun Williams 22-20, 21-15.

In the Un­der-23 Women’s tour­na­ment, Badroe and Richards eased to wins over Mee­ka John­son and Paige Alexan­der, Ali­ka Hold­er and Ruth St Louis, Sadie Torkar and Kait­lyn Ram­per­sad and Ne­fer­ta Khafra and Kerneil Wal­dron.

Badroe and Richards beat Hold­er and St Louis 21-8, 21-19; Khafra and Wal­dron 21-0, 21-1; John­son and Alexan­der 21-15, 21-12; and Torkar and Ram­per­sad 14-21, 21-14, 15-6.