JAVA pulls plug on NORCECA beach tournament
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA) Rudolph Speid says that the NORCECA beach volleyball tournament, which was scheduled for November, has been cancelled.
Speid told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview yesterday that the event, which was scheduled to be held in Jamaica for the second time this year, was cancelled due to financial constraints and the withdrawal of several teams.
“We have issues because some of the teams are saying they are not coming because of the recent hurricanes, and so that is one of the big issues that we had,” said Speid.
“We were asked to put it for a later date in December, but December is in the tourism season and we can’t afford the hotels at that time, and so there is a financial issue because of the timing now,” he said.
WIDESPREAD CANCELLATION
Speid added that the recent passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which affected a number of Caribbean islands, also led to many of the countries pulling out of the championships.
“We can understand because a lot of the islands have been ravaged by the storms and there is just widespread cancellation of the tournament in the region because a lot of other countries have also cancelled their tours,” Speid said.
He said that his association and its players are very disappointed that the tournament was forced to be cancelled because they had a very successful hosting of competitions in Jamaica earlier this year.
“We are very disappointed because we got two [tournaments] and we did one in July and it was very successful, and we thought we would have another one again, and so we are just disappointed that it is not happening,” Speid said.