Nolan Tash has retained his position as captain of a 12-member T&T senior men’s volleyball team to compete at the North America, Central America and the Caribbean Confederation (Norceca) Men’s Continental Olympic Qualifiers. The one-week eight-team tournament which will qualify one team to the London Olympics takes place from May 7-12 at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. In addition to Tash, the other experienced players in the T&T squad includes long-serving national players Sean Morrison, Saleem Ali, Ryan Mahadeo, Ryan Stewart, Kevin Nimrod, Jessel Davis and Portugal-based professional Marc-Anthony Honore who is attached to SL Benfica. Honore, who helped his club to a 14th Portugese Cup recently, is expected to be involved in A-1 Division Championship playoff matches on April 28 and May 1. Once his team wins those two matches he will meet up with the T&T team in Los Angeles prior to the start of the tournament.

However, should Benfica be forced into a third and deciding match in the best-of-three series on May 5, Honore will arrive a day later, ahead of T&T’s opener. Honore is also expected to secure his European Residency VISA, which will allow him easy re-entry into Portugal once he joins up with the T&T squad. In California, T&T, ranked sixth in Norceca and 33rd in the world, has been grouped with defending Olympic champion USA, Mexico and Costa Rica in Pool B while Pool A comprises Cuba, Canada, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The T&T squad, the reigning Caribbean champions last competed at this stage of the Olympic qualifiers four years ago in Puerto Rico but failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics in China. Dickson and his squad which includes two reserves in Tevin Joseph and Kevin Amarali will conduct six more training sessions before leaving for USA. The sessions continue tomorrow at the Eastern Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Tacarigua followed by Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at the Central Regional Indoor Sports Arena, Chaguanas and then again next Thursday at Tacarigua.

Team
T&T Olympic men training squad: Sean Morrison, Nolan Tash (captain), Marc-Anthony Honore, Ryan Mahadeo, Jessel Davis, Kevin Nimrod,  Saleem Ali, Russell Pena,  Joshua Mohammed, Ryan Stewart, Simon Blake, Akim Bushe.
Reserves: Kevin Amarali (stand-by for Russell Pena), Tevin Joseph (stand-by for Marc-Anthony Honore)

-Nigel Simon

Source: www.guardian.co.tt