J’can pair posts best-ever beach volleyball placing
Jamaica’s women’s beach volleyball duo of Cheryl Daley and Cherine Richards, who finished seventh at NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit in Varadero, Cuba from August 26-28, are eager for more competition ahead of their Olympic qualifiers likely set for November.
For the first time ever, Daley and Richards were finishing in the top eight on the NORCECA circuit, which Daley described as “a good feeling”.
“It just proved that with the proper resources we can be strong contenders on the beach volleyball scene,” she said.
In their three matches in the first round, Jamaica beat Costa Rica, but lost to Puerto Rico-2 and Guatemala. Later in the quarter-finals the ladies lost to Cuba-2.
Cub and Puerto Rico, who fielded two teams, along with Mexico and Guatemala, were the six best in the women’s competition.
“We come away with the fact that even with limited resources, our efforts are not in vain and we can do more even with less. We will just keep persevering until we get the sponsorship, coaches and other resources needed,” Daley emphasised.
The duo were hoping to take part in one of the circuits in Mexico this month,but will likely turn their attention to one in Nicaragua on November 2-7.
According to Daley, though the date and venue for the Olympic qualifiers have yet to be announced, they must be held before the end of November.
Meanwhile, the Jamaican men’s team of Mark Lewis, who now lives and trains in Barbados, and Dellan Brown, finished ninth.
Having lost all three matches in the opening round, to Cuba-2, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, they failed to advance to the top eight. But Lewis and Brown defeated the pairs from Curacao and El Salvador to take ninth place.
“The tournament was not originally one of the events we were to participate in, so it was a last-minute request from NORCECA that warranted our participation,” explained Lewis.
“We’ll use the rest of the year to focus only on the two Olympic qualifiers and making a good representation for Jamaica at our first-ever Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, October 2011,” Lewis added.