Seven teams, including three from Brazil, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago will be contending in the Trade Wind Tankers International Volleyball Tournament which starts today at the National Gymnasium.
At the launching yesterday, Ian Wills, President of the Demerara Volleyball Association, said the competition stemmed from a local competition.
“Basically, it’s a spin off from the local tournament which was the Trade Winds Tankers True Champions Tournament. What we are going to be doing is hosting three international club teams from Brazil, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and they are going to be competing against the current number one team in Guyana which is the Young Achievers,” he said.
Three other local clubs expected to compete are the Castrol Strikers, GuySuCo Training School and the High Rollers of New Amsterdam. Apart from that, Wills said, a Goodwill Championship will be played between two youth teams from Brazil and Guyana.
Guyana’s two youth teams recently participated in a Goodwill Championship which included Suriname and Barbados.
Meanwhile, President of the Guyana Volleyball Federation Lennox Shuffler said that hosting such a contest at this point in Guyana speaks to the revival of the sport here.
“This is like a dream come through. What we are seeing here starting at this moment is the development of volleyball in Guyana, because we are at level one… and we were not having the type of activities necessary to improve and develop volleyball in Guyana,” he said.
According to Shuffler, this is because Guyana is a member of the South American Volleyball Federation and the cost to play in South America is very high. “So we now have an agreement with the FIVB [Federation International De Volleyball], which is the world body, and also the South American Volleyball Federation,” that will allow Guyana to share ideas and experiences and develop the sport together.
The main sponsor of the tournament is Trade Wind Tankers, the shipping agent for the Guyana Oil Company along with Digicel, CIDI [Caribbean International Distributors Incorporated] and Hand in Hand Insurance Company.
