TT beach volleyballers win gold, silver in Barbados

TT’S beach volleyball women pair of Tsyan Selvon and Asma Charles grabbed the gold medal while the men’s pair of Stephen Enile and Joel Theodore secured the silved medal over the weekend at the Barbados Olympic Association Independence Invitational Games (BIIG) at Pirate’s Cove, Bridgetown, Barbados.

TT women pairs have dominated the annual competition over the last three as the pairing of Rheeza Grant and Abby Blackman won in 2017, 2018. Selvon partnered with Brittany Choon last year and were the silver medallists and this year, she went one step further with her new partner Charles.

Selvon/ Charles defeated Barbadians Stacey Atherley and Neesah Yearwood 2-0 (21:14, 23:21). In the semi-final round, they won by default as Nariesa Dyer and Thea Bradshaw forfeited because of injury. The TT pair played unbeaten in their three preliminary matches without dropping a set.

Selvon said after her victory, “ It was only a couple of months ago, my teammate and I decided that we will be participating in the BIIG Games together. We only played in one local tournament before but since then we have a special bond.” She continued, “For preparations for the tournament we competed against our senior volleyball teams who had more experience than us but we learnt how to captitalise on our strengths on defence.”

Speaking on her experience of participating in the tournament, she said, “I played last year so I was aware of the level competition, fortunately for us our competitors were not as tall as our senior players. Heading in to final, we were confident with our heads held high because we were playing against Barbados at home. Despite all the noise we were able to stay focus and win the final. It was euphoric for us because it was the first time competing regionally. Asma and I are defenders and this goes to show that anything is possible.”

In the men’s final, Enile/Theodore fought to the end but eventually fell short to Bajan veterans Omar Sealy/ Elwin Oxley 2-0 (25:23, 21:19). In the semi-final, Enile/Theodore got some revenge as they defeated Akeem Mayers and Sheldon Roach 2-0 (21: 17,2:18) the same team who stopped them a year ago in the quarter-final.

Captain Enile said, “Having been out of the sand court for almost a year, it has been very encouraging that I can go out there with Joel who I am very happy to have the opportunity to partner with and grab the silver medal considering last year we got knocked out in the quarter-final. Enile also said that he was happy that his team Zenith was able to win on Friday in the Super League without him and Joel.