Travelling restrictions caused by the Covid-19
pandemic prevented the normal celebration of the
NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit for the second
consecutive year.
Nevertheless, two important events took place in
2021 with the finals of the Continental Cup in
Colima, Mexico where two countries –one per
gender- qualified to the Tokyo Olympic Games and
the U23 Qualifiers to the Junior Pan American
Games in Cali-Valle, contested in Punta Cana,
Dominican Republic.
In the month of June, Cuba and Mexico earned the
NORCECA tickets to the Olympics in the women and
men categories, respectively.
The Cuban duos of Lidy Echeverria/Yanisleydis
Sanchez and Leila Martínez/Mailen Deliz easily
won their matches over the Mexicans Martha
Revuelta/Zaira Orellana and Susana Torres/María
Quintero.
Echeverría/Sanchez beat Revuelta/Orellana 2-0
(21-15, 21-15) while Martinez/Deliz crushed
Torres/Quintero 2-0 (21-16, 21-7).
In the men’s tournament, the Mexican duo of
Josué Gaxiola and José Luis Rubio won a golden
set 15-13 over Canada’s Grant O’Gorman and Ben
Saxton to seal their ticket to Tokyo.
Gaxiola/Rubio opened with a 2-0 (24-22, 21-13)
victory over Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow only
to see how O’Gorman/Saxton defeated the veterans
Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros 2-0 (21-18,
21-13) to force a golden set. |