NORCECA Beach Circuit will have 17 stops in 2013

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, December 8, 2012 – The 2013 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit will be increased to a total of 17 stops, including seven in Mexico, it was decided during the second day of the Beach Volleyball Commission meetings at the organization headquarters in Santo Domingo on Saturday.

The season will serve off in Cayman Islands (March 20-25) continuing in Dominican Republic (March 21-April 1) and Guatemala (April 17-22).

The circuit then move to Mexico for stops in the cities of Tampico (May 1-6), Chiapas (May 8-13), Morelia (May 15-20), Toluca (June 5-10) and Acapulco (June 12-17).

The event continues in Puerto Rico (August 14-19), Cuba (August 21-26) and San Diego, USA (September 25-30) before going back to Mexico for tournaments in Mazatlan (October 2-7) and Colima (October 9-14).

The season concludes with the events in Saint Lucia (October 23-28), Costa Rica (October 30-November 4), Trinidad & Tobago (November 13-18) and Aruba (November 27-December 2).

The commission also voted to present a proposal to increase the prize money for the events to US$ 16,000 for the double-gender tournaments as it was the case for the last tournament of the year held in Aruba.

The members also received the reports from the different regional zones –CAZOVA, ECVA and AFECAVOL- as well as a general report made by Arnaldo Sanchez, president of the commission. It included the eleven competitions of 2012 and also the events of the Continental Cup towards the Olympic Games held in Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and México.

NORCECA President Cristobal Marte Hoffiz presented the first-round tentative calendar of the Continental Cup towards the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games starting next year if approved by FIVB.

He also informed about the commitment to organize qualification tournaments for the FIVB Youth, Junior and Under-23 Beach Volleyball World Championships, and also qualifiers for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

The double-gender U-19 and U-23 Qualification Tournaments will be held in Puerto Rico while the double-gender U-21 Tournament will take place in Costa Rica all during the month of March.

Other proposal to be submitted for the approval by the NORCECA Board of Administration and Executive Committee are the following:

- Three open tournaments to be held in NORCECA countries with financial assistance from FIVB with the sites to be decided by January 12 of 2013.

- The number of referees for the events will be increased to nine, including three neutrals.

- The minimum number of courts for an event to receive the authorization for an official competition will be three.

- The arrival date for the referee supervisor and the technical director will be on Tuesday for events taking place on weekends.

- To adopt the pool-play format with a consolation round in order to guarantee to the participating teams at least four matches per tournament.

- Prize money for top-ranked National Federations at the end of the year will be increased from US$ 5,000 to US$ 10,000 per gender.

- The Regional Development Centre in Dominican Republic to organize international courses of coaches and referees in 2013.