Sports
Roneil Walcott
Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-17 boys’ volleyball team ended the inaugural Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Under-17 Boys’ Championship with a silver medal to show for their efforts as they suffered a straight sets loss to Barbados in the August 3 final at the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in St Catherine, Jamaica.
On their run to the final, the young TT spikers defeated Jamaica 3-1 and also got a nail-biting 3-2 victory over Suriname as they navigated the round-robin phase. In their opening fixture against the Bajans on July 31, though, TT were dealt a 3-0 (9-25, 15-25, 17-25) loss and that result was replicated in the gold-medal match.
The first set in the final was a keenly contested one, but Barbados won it 25-19 to get their noses ahead. The next two sets were more straightforward for the Bajans as they won them 25-13, 25-14 to cement the 3-0 win against their TT counterparts.
In an exciting girls’ finale, Barbados just fell short of securing an impressive double feat as Suriname won 3-2. The Surinamese won a lengthy first set 29-27, before taking the second set 25-22. Barbados won the next two sets 25-18 and 25-14, but the Surinamese roared back in the decisive fifth set to clinch it 15-9 to seal the title.
The TT girls claimed the bronze medal after getting a straight sets win over the hosts.
