TT beach volleyball teams named for Olympic qualifiers in June

THE TT Volleyball Federation (TTVF) has named its men's and women's squads for the forthcoming Olympic qualification semi-finals and finals, which will be staged in Mexico in June.

Daneil Williams, Daynte Stewart, Marlon Phillip and Joel Theodore will comprise the men's team, with Fabien Whitfield, Stephen Enile, Tevin Edwards and Kareem Thomas as the reserves.

The women's team will feature Rheeza Grant, Abby Blackman, Lateisha Joseph and Malika Davidson. Suraya Chase, Apphia Glasgow, Tsyan Selvon and Asma Charles will be the reserve players.

The TTVF also announced that Sean Morrison and Jason Dennis will be the coaches of the respective men's and women's teams for the Under-23 Pan Am Games Qualification Tournament.

According to a media release from the TTVF, "The High-Performance Unit of the TTVF was given the mandate to have all the athletes medically evaluated within the next 14 days. The uncertainty of travelling within the pandemic may also affect the final selection as some athletes are fearful of being vaccinated. The athletes’ preparation will now intensify under the watchful eyes of their private coaches."

The TTVF plans to observe a number of covid19 protocols – no more than five persons in any one training session, coaches must wear a mask during sessions, no celebratory contact gestures, teams do not change sides of the court as per normal, balls and nets must be sanitised before and after every session, coaches are to keep on-site a log of all athletes attending sessions with their personal contact information for contact tracing, and no spectators.