Carib teams to battle in Olympic qualifiers

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

An eight-nation Caribbean Volleyball Association beach tournament will get underway here tomorrow and will serve as a qualifier for the London 2012 Olympics.

The tournament will see four teams from the US Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Aruba, Curacao and Trinidad and Tobago clashing in the December 16-20 competition, with the top four men and women teams advancing to the second round, Continental qualifiers.

Each country will field two men's and two women's teams for the event, scheduled for the Central Regional Indoor Sports Arena in Saith Park, Chaguanas.

Mushtaque Mohammed, president of the T&T Volleyball Federation, will open the event at 6 p.m.

Beach volleyball was formally introduced as an Olympic event at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after being showcased as a demonstration sport four years earlier in Barcelona.

Twenty-four teams participate in each Olympiad, with a limit of two teams per country.