T&T's Stephen Enile and Joel Theodore secured their first-ever regional title when they won the inaugural Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Senior Beach Volleyball men's title at the Rudy Boezen complex in Bonaire on Thursday night.
In the final, the T&T men swept Eddy Toro Maldonado and Thelion Jahim Coutinho of Aruba 2-0 (21-18, 21-16).
Speaking after the win an elated Theodore said, "We had an interesting day, we started off a bit slow, which we didn’t anticipate. We were able to recover and we are really happy for the win. Aruba did their best and we tried our best to stay focused and come out with the win."
Enile agreed with his partner about their slow start in the tournament adding, “We played our best in the semifinals, we came out with a very good win to put us in the final match; we showed what we came here to do, 'win' and we’re grateful for nothing more than that."
In the semifinal, Enil and Theodore had to come from a set down to secure their win over Barbadians Emmanual Turney and Dominic Durant 2-1 (16-21, 21-10, 15-11) while Maldonado and Coutinho defeated Curacao's Ethwinson Luis and Dimanche Elsevijf 2-0 (21-18, 21-18).
In the bronze medal match-up, Turney and Durant also came from behind to earn a 2-1 (15-21, 21-18, 15-13) win over Luis and Elsevijf of Curaçao after the scores were locked at 11-11 and 13-13 in the decider.
When the tournament served off in the morning with round-robin pool matches, Enile and Theodore were beaten by Luis and Elsevijf in their opening Pool B match, 1-2 (20-22,21-17, 12-15) but rebounded to defeat Emmanuel Montenegro and Josue Mejía of Bonaire 2-0 (21-6, 21-4) while Luis and Elsevijf also beat Montenegro and Mejia 2-0 (21-4, 21-10).
Turney and Durant advanced to the semifinals as winners of Pool A after they had wins over the home team of Luiyi E. Morales Monsalve and Savyo Antonio Benjamin 2-0 (21-17, 21-18) and then 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) against Maldonado and Coutinho.
The number one-seeded team of the event, Maldonado and Coutinho finished second in Pool A after beating Monsalve/Benjamin 2-1 (21-11, 17-21, 15-8).
Charles, Richards get bronze in women's competition
T&T's Asma Charles and Kristianna Richards ended with the bronze medal in the women's five-team round-robin series after ending with a 2-2 win-loss record.
Charles and Richards got off to a dismal start with losses to Barbadians Dei Padmore and Serena Edwards 0-2 (13-21, 7-21) and Curacao's Lakisha Hous and Dhyveke Brugman 1-2 (17-21, 22-20, 8-15).
However, the T&T women then rebounded to come out on top against locals, Valeria Morales and Maria Medina 2-1 (17-21, 21-12, 15-11) and Orlianys Ramirrez and Maria Fernanda Becerra 2-0 (21-12, 21-6).
Padmore and Edwards of Barbados won the first edition of the women's competition when they ended with a perfect 4-0 win-loss mark.
In addition to their win over Charles and Richards, the pair of Padmore and Edwards beat Ramirrez and Becerra 2-0 (21-13, 21-6); and then went on to dominate Hous and Brugman of Curacao 2-0 (21-15, 21-9) and Morales and Medina 2-0 (21-12, 21-9).
Hous and Brugman took second place with three wins and one loss, with their other wins coming against Morales and Medina 2-1 (20-22, 21-10, 15-9), and Ramirez and Becerra 2-0 (21-4, 21-10).
In the battle to avoid the wooden spoon between the two home town teams, Morales and Medina won over Ramirez and Becerra 2-0 (21-11, 21-15)
