TT play Brazil, Canada in openers

AFTER months of training the TT water polo teams will be in action when the 2019 Pan American Youth Water Polo Championships start at the National Aquatic Centre in Couva, at 9 am, today.

The United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Bahamas, along with TT will compete in the Under-17 boys category, while US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and TT will participate in the Under-17 girls division.

The TT girls will play Brazil at 11.40 am in their opening match and the TT boys will play Canada at 2 pm. The championships, which end on August 24, is a qualification tournament for the fifth FINA Youth Water Polo World Championships to be held in 2020.

Both TT teams must finish in the top four of their respective categories to qualify for the 2020 World Championships. To guarantee a top four finish the TT boys must win at least three matches and the girls must win two. In a recent training session, TT boys team member Jonathan Constantine said, “The ultimate goal is for the team to qualify for World Juniors which is next year.” Marvin Gillard-Bruce gave his thoughts on TT’s toughest opponents saying, “The main challenges for our team would be Argentina, USA, Peru.”

Gillard-Bruce said the team needs to keep their composure in order to play at a higher level. “We need to work on our discipline and we need to stop arguing with each other over petty mistakes and we have done it before and when we have done it we have played way better.”

TT Squads –

FEMALE: Christina Nimblett, Morgan Donawa, Jordan Waithe, Jade Charles, Danielle Lequay, Catherine Alexander, Victoria Gillette, Breanne Jordan, Tahira Beepat, Abeo Valentine, Tiffany Green, Aaliyah Aching.

MALE: Zephaniah Taylor Saldenha, Yannick Robertson, Ross Gillette, Jonathan Constantine, Nikolai York, Kelvin Caesar, Everson Latchman, Marvin Gillard-Bruce, Nathan Hinds, David Agard, Christian Chin Lee, Ricardo Ramdan, Dylan Lee.

TODAY’S SCHEDULE (preliminaries) –

Girls: Canada vs Argentina, 9 am; Peru vs USA, 10.20 am; TT vs Brazil, 11.40 am.

Boys: Canada vs TT, 2 pm; Brazil vs USA, 3.20 pm; Peru vs Argentina, 4.40 pm; Bahamas vs Colombia, 6 pm.