Categoría: Beach

Travelling restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the normal celebration of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit for the second consecutive year.

Nevertheless, two important events took place in 2021 with the finals of the Continental Cup in Colima, Mexico where two countries –one per gender- qualified to the Tokyo Olympic Games and the U23 Qualifiers to the Junior Pan American Games in Cali-Valle, contested in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

In the month of June, Cuba and Mexico earned the NORCECA tickets to the Olympics in the women and men categories, respectively.

The Cuban duos of Lidy Echeverria/Yanisleydis Sanchez and Leila Martínez/Mailen Deliz easily won their matches over the Mexicans Martha Revuelta/Zaira Orellana and Susana Torres/María Quintero.

Echeverría/Sanchez beat Revuelta/Orellana 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) while Martinez/Deliz crushed Torres/Quintero 2-0 (21-16, 21-7).

In the men’s tournament, the Mexican duo of Josué Gaxiola and José Luis Rubio won a golden set 15-13 over Canada’s Grant O’Gorman and Ben Saxton to seal their ticket to Tokyo.

Gaxiola/Rubio opened with a 2-0 (24-22, 21-13) victory over Sam Schachter and Sam Pedlow only to see how O’Gorman/Saxton defeated the veterans Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros 2-0 (21-18, 21-13) to force a golden set.

Navas/González, considered the pre-tournament favourites, scored a 2-0 (21-19, 21-12) victory living up to the expectations.

In the semifinals, Navas/Gonzalez subdued Canada’s Becky Tresham and Kaylee Glagau 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) while Albarrán/Gutiérrez upset Cuba’s Lázara Madán and Dayani Zequeira 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) in 31 minutes.

The bronze medal went to Canada’s Tresham/Glagau who edged Cubans Madán/Zequeira 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 15-6).

Cubans Luis Reyes and Noslen Diaz were the champions of the NORCECA U23 Men’s Beach Volleyball Qualifier to the Junior Pan American Games     

Reyes/Diaz claimed the gold medal following their 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) victory over Mexico’s Miguel Sarabia and Raymond Stephens in just 34 minutes.

In the semifinals, Reyes/Díaz defeated Nicaragua’s Solis and Denis Lopez 2-0 (21-17, 21-10) while Sarabia/Stephens beat Puerto Rico’s William Rivera and Randall Santiago 2-0 (21-16, 21-17).

The bronze medal went to Puerto Ricans Rivera/Santiago who won the third-place contest over Nicaragua’s Solis/Lopez by scores of 2-0 (21-8, 21-18).

The teams qualified were:

Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and Costa Rica in both genders, the women’s teams of Canada and Guatemala and the men’s of Nicaragua and Dominican Republic.