Host T&T will be keen for a win­ning start in both men and women com­pe­ti­tions when the T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion (TTVF) plays host to the Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Un­der-23 Cham­pi­onship at the Mal­oney In­door Sport­ing Fa­cil­i­ty from Thurs­day (Ju­ly 10) un­til Sun­day (Ju­ly 13).

In the men’s four-team tour­na­ment, host T&T will face off with Mar­tinique, Guade­loupe and Suri­name and the women’s com­pe­ti­tion will al­so fea­ture four teams in­clu­sive of host T&T, Mar­tinique, de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Suri­name and Cu­ra­cao.

At the end of both men and women U-23 round-robin se­ries, the top two teams will square off for the gold medals on Sun­day's fi­nal day of com­pe­ti­tion, while the third and fourth-placed teams will con­test the bronze medal, al­so on the fi­nal day.

On the open­ing day, Guade­loupe and Suri­name meet in the men’s first match from 12 noon while host T&T and Mar­tinique will close out the day’s sched­ule with the women’s match­es com­ing in be­tween, fea­tur­ing Mar­tinique and Suri­name from 2 pm, and host T&T ver­sus Cu­ra­cao.

The sec­ond day of round-robin match­es to­mor­row will serve off this time with a women’s en­counter be­tween Cu­ra­cao and Suri­name from 1 pm while host T&T meets Mar­tinique in the 8 pm en­counter, and on the men’s side, Mar­tinique faces Suri­name from 3 pm fol­lowed by the T&T and Guade­loupe men from 6 pm.

On Sat­ur­day, Cu­ra­cao and Mar­tinique men be­gin the day’s ac­tion from 1 pm fol­lowed by their men’s team at 3 pm be­fore host T&T women and men face Suri­name in 6 pm, and 8 pm en­coun­ters to end the round-robin phase, ahead of Sun­day’s fi­nals and third place play­offs from 12 noon.

Essiel Seecha­ran coach of the men’s team said af­ter three months of in­tense train­ing his play­ers were as ready as can be for the chal­lenge ahead.

Seecha­ran said his team is al­so in­jury free and his ex­pec­ta­tions for the team is to con­test for the gold medal come Sun­day’s fi­nal of com­pe­ti­tion.

As­sis­tant women coach and for­mer na­tion­al women’s team libero Court­nee-Mae Clif­ford said her ex­pec­ta­tions is for the girls to do well.

She added, “The team is a well bal­ance group of play­ers who have come up through the na­tion­al team ranks at the youth lev­el along with hav­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence of play­ing both in­door and beach vol­ley­ball and we are ready as can be.”

Mush­taque Mo­hammed, pres­i­dent of the CA­ZO­VA, in look­ing ahead to the tour­na­ment, said as an as­so­ci­a­tion, the body, was re­al­ly hap­py to fi­nal­ly see the tour­na­ment come to fruition.

The CA­ZO­VA boss added, “The tour­na­ment for the men was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for the Cay­man Is­lands, but be­cause of some chal­lenges they had, the TTVF has tak­en up the chal­lenge to stage the event along with host­ing the women’s com­pe­ti­tion.

“Now we are go­ing to get both men and women U-23 events off the ground, and we are re­al­ly hap­py to see that the chal­lenges we have been faced with are be­ing over­come.

Com­ment­ing on the small num­ber of par­tic­i­pat­ing teams, with the likes of the Ba­hamas, Bar­ba­dos, Haiti, Ja­maica and the US Vir­gin Is­lands all ab­sent from this year’s tour­na­ment,” Mo­hammed said,

“Al­though it’s on­ly four teams, we are re­al­ly look­ing for­ward to an ex­cit­ing and event­ful tour­na­ment.”

To­day’s Match­es

Men:

• ↓Guade­loupe vs Suri­name, 12 noon

• ↓T&T vs Mar­tinique, 8 pm

Women:

• ↓Mar­tinique vs Suri­name, 2 pm

• ↓T&T vs Cu­ra­cao, 6 pm

Open­ing cer­e­mo­ny: 5 pm

Fri­day’s Match­es

Women

• ↓Cu­ra­cao vs Suri­name 1 pm

• ↓T&T vs Mar­tinique, 8 pm

Men:

• ↓Mar­tinique vs Suri­name, 3 pm

• ↓T&T vs Guade­loupe, 6 pm