T&T's women rug­by sev­ens team yes­ter­day be­gan a valu­able train­ing stint in prepa­ra­tion for next month's Nacra zone Olympic qual­i­fiers with a se­ries of match­es against Cen­tral and South Amer­i­can op­po­si­tion at the In­ter­na­tion­al Cam­pus of Women Rug­by Sev­ens Tour­na­ment in Medellin, Colom­bia.

Led by cap­tain Ayan­na Skeete and coached by Carl­ton Fe­lix, the sev­ens team ar­rived in Colom­bia on Thurs­day for the two-day round-robin tour­na­ment. They were sched­uled to play a se­ries of top qual­i­ty op­po­si­tion in Cas­co cham­pi­ons and hosts, Colom­bia, Nacra women's cham­pi­ons, Mex­i­co, Cos­ta Ri­ca and Pe­ru. The first match, against Mex­i­co, fin­ished af­ter press time last evening.

They then faced the host team in the sec­ond match. To­day, the sec­ond and fi­nal day, T&T will meet Pe­ru and fi­nal­ly Cos­ta Ri­ca.

The team in Colom­bia is com­prised of Skeete, Nico­lette Pan­tor, Kan­isha Vin­cent, Or­nel­la George, Jolyene Cow­ard, Sara Grif­fith, Kafi Wright, Ale­sha Bruce, Ap­phia Glas­gow, Maria Mendez, Vic­to­ria Cal­iste, Dalia Jor­dan-Brown, Fay­ola Jack14. Ten­isha Samuel-Duke, Blos­som Stew­art and Kath­leen Stephens. Fe­lix's as­sis­tants are Je­nilee Li­ma­da and Kel­son Fi­garo. Ebony Young is the man­ag­er, while Derek Ash­by-Williams is the team's phys­io­ther­a­pist.

The trip, fund­ed by the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT), Min­istry of Sport, the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee and Nacra, is un­prece­dent­ed a T&T women's rug­by team. Speak­ing ahead of the trip, Fe­lix said the tour­na­ment serves a top op­por­tu­ni­ty to lift the women's game and in­crease the team's chances of suc­cess next month.

"I am re­al­ly look­ing for­ward to this tour­na­ment, as it would pro­vide us with ide­al match prepa­ra­tion as well as give us the op­por­tu­ni­ty to have a clos­er look at some of the play­ers," Fe­lix said.

"The tim­ing of it would al­so al­low us to prop­er­ly an­a­lyze the games and make the nec­es­sary ad­just­ments be­fore the Nacra Tour­na­ment in June. The op­por­tu­ni­ty to have this type of prepa­ra­tion, as we have not had be­fore, I am pret­ty con­fi­dent that it will boost our chances come June."

The women's team will vis­it North Car­oli­na, in the US, for the June 13-14 Olympic qual­i­fiers.