The Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) will host the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Under-19 and Under-18 Championships at G C Foster College July 22-27.

The Under-19 tournament for boys has five teams participating with six teams competing in the Under-18 for girls. The teams are from six countries with Jamaica, the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname and Barbados having both boys’ and girls’ teams, and Guadeloupe sending only a girls team.

All five teams in the boys’ tournament for which Jamaica are the defending champions, will compete against each other in a round-robin format before the top two teams contest the final. The teams that finished third and fourth in the first round will play off for third place.

There will be two zones in the girls’ competition with Group A consisting of Jamaica, USVI and Suriname and Group B comprising Barbados, Guadeloupe and Trinidad and Tobago. The top two teams will advance to the semi-finals, with the winners from the groups playing the second-placed teams for places in the final.

Tournament director Cleyon Reid, at the launch at Knutsford Court Hotel on Tuesday, said that over 200 players and officials will be hosted at G C Foster College during the period.

Reid said teams will arrive July 20-21 for the tournament, which has two matches in the morning and two in the afternoon each day in the first round.

Meanwhile, Minister of Sports Olivia Grange had a message read by Florette Blackwood, sports development consultant in the ministry. In the message, Grange said she was pleased that the tournament will be played in Jamaica as it forms part of the development that JaVA has been undertaking.

According to Grange, a part of the developmental process is JaVA expanding the sport to include primary schools in recent years.

General manager of sponsor Sports Development Foundation Denzil Wilks said the entity is fulfilling its mandate of developing sports in Jamaica, by helping JaVA to host the regional tournament.