Several international teams are coming to St Lucia to compete in the Ninth Stage of the 2013 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour. The competition takes place at Pigeon Island, Gros Islet from October 9-14.
The event which was formally announced at a press launch Thursday morning in the conference room of Auberge Seraphine, is being hosted by the St Lucia Volleyball Association in collaboration with the St Lucia Tourist Board and the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports.
With US$16,000 in prize money the tour will bring 32 top male and female beach volleyball teams from as far north as Canada and as far south as Panama to St. Lucia’s shores, for the second consecutive year. The site will be the “resplendent Pigeon Island,” which last year was transformed into a Beach Volleyball haven.
Both the Ministry of Tourism represented by Permanent Secretary, Donovan Williams and St Lucia Tourist Board, represented by Ian Herman, touted the marketing potential, the international nature of the event, the high quality and caliber athletes who will participate and the potential for such an event to put “heads in beds.”
Both agencies applauded SLVA for its drive in bringing such an event to the market and pledged their support. President of the St. Lucia Volleyball Association, Brian Louisy, confessed that this was the association’s biggest event for the year and thanked the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries and the St. Lucia Tourist Board, ECFH, LIME, Caribbean Publishing Company, CLIMAX, Choice TV, the WAVE and CSS, Du Boulay’s Bottling Company Limited
and other sponsors for partnering with the association in hosting this landmark “BIG” event.
Louisy pointed out that SLVA is also hosting the ECVA 2014 Nanjin Youth Olympics Qualification Tournament the weekend before, using the same set up for the NORCECA event. He revealed that all the sponsors of the NORCECA event automatically enjoyed branding rights at the Olympic Qualification event. The Nanjin Youth Olympics Qualifier is slated for October 2-7.
The NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tournament starts two day later on October 9. Matches will be held from 12:00 to 8:00 pm on Friday October 11, Saturday October 12 and Sunday October 13. There will be cheer leaders on the Saturday and Sunday, while, a cultural showcase will be put on at the opening ceremony on the Friday night, with a grand big closing party planned for the Sunday evening.
The SLVA expects a full quota of teams for the event like last year and looks to its standout players, Joseph Clercent and Julian Biscette to mount the podium again.
