Olympic dreams are a serve away for Cayman’s male beach volleyball players.
The Cayman Islands national team is competing in the semi-finals of the North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation Men’s Inter Zonal Continental Cup. The competition (which was initially planned for next month) started on Thursday in Nicaragua and wraps up on Saturday, 18 February.
Representing Cayman are Richard Campbell, Philippe Deslandes, Shervin Rankin and Olney ‘OT’ Thompson. Sentiment within the Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation is that all can achieve great results. Among the optimists is vice president Kennedy McGowan.
“They have a good chance of doing good, a chance to advance out there,” McGowan said. “They have built up experience over the years. Over the last several weeks, they trained hard, were assisted by a Florida coach and worked with pro US coaches. Preparations went well.
“Two of our most experienced players are OT and Shervin. Over the last two events we split them up with Richard and Philippe. The experience they bring to the game is great. Over the last few months Richard has shown massive improvement. He has the most potential in helping Cayman do well.”
Cayman is one of five Caribbean countries taking part. The others, who advanced through last December’s quarterfinal stage in Grand Cayman, are Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Jamaica and St. Kitts and Nevis. All are slated to tackle the top Central American teams including Guatemala, Panama and hosts Nicaragua. The winner of this week’s tournament advances to the Cup final, which offers a berth to the 2012 London Olympics.
Carl Brown is another volleyball federation member who feels Cayman can shine in Nicaragua. He states the competition offered little time for Cayman to celebrate advancing past the first round.
“The men have been practicing for Nicaragua,” Brown said. “It’s huge for Cayman. It should be celebrated for a month but there’s no time. Right now the International Volleyball Federation’s eyes are squarely on us. We are in a position to get the world championship and attract more resources to make Cayman the epicentre of volleyball in the region.”
Prior to the New Year, members of the Cayman team were confident heading into the semis. Campbell, 27, stated that he was still dealing with the magnitude of the competition.
“Mentally I’ll be good to go again,” Campbell said. “I’m not nervous about the competition. It’s all about player training with Shervin. It’s just sinking in that this is a pretty big deal. We have more stages to go through but for what we’ve done, especially having no coach, it’s a pretty big achievement.”
The male quartet carry Cayman’s last hopes of Olympic qualification. Last weekend the women’s team of Cristin Alexander, Jennifer Bily, Taylor Burrowes and Stefania Gandolfi placed fifth in Costa Rica, just short of a Cup final berth. They were edged out by Guatemala, who placed third behind event winner Costa Rica and runner-up El Salvador. Nicaragua finished fourth.
For male stalwart Rankin, 38, his health is good and beating Jamaica is a priority.
“I couldn’t train for the past few months,” Rankin said. “But right now the leg is feeling real good. Jamaica got away because of injury. We hope to get them in the next round again. We have a point to prove for old time’s sake.”
Related Videos
