T&T's women's and men's beach volleyball teams of Meeka Johnson and L’fe Roberts, and Jerome Morrison and Darion Sparks made their exits at the end of the main draw group stages of the 18th FIVB World Championship Under-19 Beach Volleyball Tournament in Shangluo, China on August 28.
This after the local pairs ended with 0-3 records in their respective four-team round-robin pools to miss out on a main draw round-of-16 spots as group winners as well as the round-of-24 as second and third-placed teams.
Competing in their four-team Group A round-robin series of the 32-team main draw, Johnson and Roberts, now attached to Florida Memorial University in the USA, ended their campaign with a 6-21, 13-21 loss to Moroccans Aida Lamzaouak and Fakhr Imane.
Both T&T and Moroccos went into the match-up with 0-2 win-loss records and the valuable third spot in the pool to qualify for the main draw knockout was up for grabs for the winners, who now enter today's round-of-24.
On Wednesday, Johnson and Roberts, who represented T&T on home soil at last year's Commonwealth Youth Games served off their tournament with a loss to China’s Yijing Lei and Siyu Qi, 8-21, 12-21, before suffering the same faith against reigning U-18 European champions Lia Berger and Lilli Hohenauer of Austria, ninth-placed finishers two years ago, 11-21, 10-21 in their second match on the day.
Berger and Hohenauer swept past Lamzaouak and Imane 21-9, 21-10, while Lei and Siyu also won against the Moroccans 21-14, 21-11 to set up a pool decider against the host duo, which the Europeans won 22-20, 21-17.
In the men’s 32-team main draw, Morrison and Sparks were overwhelmed by Denmark’s Villads Flugge Napier and Villads Lundby Andersen 9-21, 8-21 and Hong Kong’s Ho Yiu Wong and Hoi Fung Li 10-21, 8-21 in their two matches yesterday after a 14-21, 5-21 loss in their Group B opener against the Viljamaa brothers of Finland, Veeti and Konsta on Wednesday.
Denmark’s Villads Flugge Napier and Villads Lundby Andersen outclassed Wong and Li 21-11, 21-8 for their other win before losing out to the Viljamaa's 18-21, 14-21 in the pool decider while the latter also defeated Wong and Li 21-14, 21-15.
Commenting on his players' performances, T&T coach Sean Morrison said it was a learning experience for the entire contingent.
He said, "We might think we are the best team in the Caribbean region at youth or junior levels, but in terms of science, coaching, physiotherapy, and all other aspects of getting a team fully prepared everyone needs to have a level of experience for these kind of international tournaments, and we lack that."
Morrison added, "Yes, it was the first of possible many tournaments for our players, but at the same time we can't do the same things over and over and expect to get better results going forward."
Asked what he will take away from the competition Morrison said, "Our players gained a lot of experience playing at the tournament, but they still need a lot more in terms of how we prepare ahead of these types of tournaments.
"They have a lot ahead of them in terms of qualifiers for U-21 and U-23 World Championships as well as Youth Olympics and Senior Olympics, but for them to have a chance they need to be competing much more," noted Morrison.
"We need to be competing more at the NORCECA level on a regular basis and not just against our Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) rivals because at these tournaments we are coming up against teams who have been competing on a regular basis at the top international events in front of massive crowds."
Not wanting to make excuses for the players, Morrison said he does believe that if T&T wants to have sport doing better at the next level, then government and corporate T&T has to get involved in a better manner and help fund sports in a better way as well.
