T&T's Mar­lon 'Wal­do' Phillip and Daynte Stew­art capped off a stel­lar week­end with a bronze medal when the third leg of the 2019 NORCE­CA Beach Vol­ley­ball Tour­na­ment end­ed at Man­agua, Nicaragua, yes­ter­day.

Com­ing up against host duo, Dany Lopez and Ger­son Con­tr­eras, for third spot, Stew­art and Phillip, play­ing for the first time on the tour this sea­son af­ter miss­ing the first two legs, tri­umphed 21-18, 18-21, 15-10 to si­lence the home crowd.

When the tour­na­ment served off on Fri­day, Phillip and Stew­art won 21-19, 21-13 over Cos­ta Ri­cans, Richard Smith and Vic­tor Alpizar and beat Puer­to Ri­cans, Daniel Quinones and Kevin Lopez 21-16, 21-8 to en­sure a top two pool fin­ish.

On Sat­ur­day in the bat­tle for the top spot in the four-team pool, the T&T men went un­der to pre-tour­na­ment favourites, Cubans, Ser­gio Gon­za­lez, and Luis Reyes 13-21, 15-21.

Sat­ur­day night, Phillip and Stew­art reached a first-ever semi­fi­nal to­geth­er when they de­feat­ed Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Vic­tor Castil­lo and Alex Med­i­na, 21-12, 18-21, 15-8.

How­ev­er, yes­ter­day in the semi­fi­nals, the T&T pair­ing came up short ver­sus Guatemalans, Andy Leonar­do and Luis Gar­cia, 16-21, 14-21 and had to set­tle for the bronze medal match.

The Cubans, who have won a bronze and sil­ver so far this sea­son beat Lopez and Con­tr­eras in their semi­fi­nal, 21-9, 21-17,

For­mer top T&T pair, Daneil Williams and Fa­bi­en Whit­field have won four tour medals, three bronze and sil­ver, while last year, Williams and Stew­art earned a bronze at the fi­nal stop of the 2018 Tour in Mar­tinique.

For the first two stops on the 2019 tour, T&T was rep­re­sent­ed by Williams and Joel Theodore, who were tenth in Mex­i­co, and fol­lowed it up by end­ing 12th in the Cay­man Is­lands.

In the women's com­pe­ti­tion, T&T's Suraya Chase and Ma­li­ka David­son had a tough time in Pool C, los­ing all three en­coun­ters to USA's Ka­ley Melville, and Lind­sey Fuller (10-21, 13-21); and Nicaraguans, Is­abel­la Lu­go and Vales­ka Alon­zo. (14-21, 21-16, 9-15) on Fri­day, and then against El Sal­vador's Beat­riz Vasquez and Fer­nan­da Var­gas, 8-21, 13-21 to end pool play.

The T&T women’s duo then got a de­fault win over Nicaraguans Va­le­ria Men­doza and Elia Macha­do, 21-0, 21-0 be­fore los­ing 9-21, 20-22 to Guatemalans Marie Al­vara­do and Es­te­fanie Bethancourt, in their ninth to tenth semi­fi­nal play­off, fol­lowed by

Cos­ta Ri­cans, Va­le­ria Va­len­ciano and Cami­la Vil­le­gas 21-11, 16-21, 12-15 to end in 12th spot.

When the tour be­gan David­son and La Teisha Joseph en­joyed two tough first legs on the tour, plac­ing 13th in Mex­i­co, and 16th in the Cay­man Is­lands. The tour now heads to Va­radero, Cu­ba from May 9-13.