Teams qualified to final playoff to Nanjing are announced

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, February 6, 2014 – The twelve countries qualified to the NORCECA Youth Olympic Games Playoff Qualification Tournament in Puerto Rico from April 10-14 were announced during the VIS and Statistics Commission annual meeting in Santo Domingo on Thursday.

The teams to take part in the girls’ field are Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, Suriname, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico.

In the boys’ division the teams are Dominica, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, United States, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The teams already qualified to the Nanjing Games are: St Vincent and Grenadines, Jamaica, Guatemala and Canada among the boys and St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala and United States among the girls.

The commission also approved to submit a proposal to expand the individual awards of a competition to twelve players.

The individual awards to be presented would be the following: Two outside hitters, two middle blockers, one opposite player, one setter, one libero, the best scorer, best server, best receiver, best digger and Most Valuable Player.

The members of the commission also reviewed the volleyball and beach volleyball tournaments held in 2013 and went over the calendar of competitions of 2014.

One of the topics that generated more discussions and participation was the one referred to the length of the volleyball matches in order to attract the interest of the television. After several opinions it was suggested to submit proposals within the next 30 days to the presidency of the commission.

Finally, Nelson Ramirez, director of the Regional Development Center in Dominican Republic, presented a complete report of activities in 2013, including the VIS and Data Volley in Trinidad & Tobago.

The members of the VIS and Statistics Commission are: Judith Sandino (President), Yanida Pascual (Secretary), Bienvenido Mateo, Esteban Hernandez, Cayacoa Moquete, Neila Alicea, Lorenzo Martinez, Orson James, Claudia Rivera, Shane Roachford and Craig McKenzie, members.