BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jan.10.2018 – PRESIDENT of the St. Kitts Volleyball Association, Glen Quinlan has reported that the year 2017 was a difficult one for his association.
That comes as the two hurricanes - Irma and Maria – disrupted plans to participate in several competitions.
During an interview with SKNVibes Sports, the president noted that the year did not go smoothly as they hoped, and it is not just for the local fraternity but also regionally.
Quinlan, who is also the president of the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association, disclosed that Hurricanes Irma and Maria affected senior scheduled tournaments on the regional front.
“We had to postpone the Senior Women’s Championships, which was slated for Antigua for August and September. But overall, I would say that we got probably a C grade last year, or maybe a C-.
“In St. Kitts and Nevis, even though we were able to host the inaugural High School Championships, which came off beautifully in the early party of the year, we were unable to marshal the impetus from that activity to the rest of the year.”
Taking some positives out of the year for the sport in St. Kitts and Nevis, Quinlan pointed out that the Federation saw glory on the beach, as both male and female teams have qualified for international events.
The president explained that through activities in 2016 and 2017, the beach volleyballers have qualified for the Central America and Caribbean Games in Columbia slated for July.
Additionally, the male beach volleyballers have also qualified for the Commonwealth Games which is being hosted in the Gold Coast, Australia in March.
The junior national team has a chance to also qualify for an international tournament.According to Quinlan, the team has an opportunity to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina, in October-November this year.
That however, depends on if they can win the qualifying tournament in Antigua.
He reminded that there would be a number of opportunities available for teams to qualify for the various regional and international tournaments, adding that are no one-off tournaments.
“But there would be a series of events that lead up to qualifying to the Olympic Games or the Pan American Games or the CAC Games or the Commonwealth games etc. And we try to take advantage as much as possible.”
