Sport

Volleyball juniors seeking $1.5m for Carib Champs

Carole Beckford - file

THE JAMAICA VOLLEYBALL Association (JVA) is seeking J$1.5 million to send both its junior male and female teams to the 5th Caribbean Junior Volleyball Championships, now scheduled for Aruba (July 8 - 17) and Trinidad and Tobago (July 19 - 25).

In late May, Aruba indicated that they were having financial difficulties and president of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA),Mushtaque Mohammed of Trinidad took the decision to separate the junior championships. The boys' competition will now be in Aruba and the girls in Trinidad and Tobago. A release yesterday, from JVA president Carole Beckford said the boys' team will need a total of $800,000 to cover the cost of airfare, accommodation, entry fee, playing gear and the relevant travel taxes; while the female team will require $700,000 for similar expenses.

Beckford said the association has made every effort to secure the $4.5 million for its overseas assignments up to August 2005, and has only been able to send the women's team to the IV PanAm Cup in the Dominican Republic and the men to the first round world championship qualifiers in Barbados. According to the JVA, both those trips cost the association $1.2 million.

The remainder is to send both the junior and the women's teams to the second round in Santo Domingo in August. In its release, the JVA said the cost of travel to the eastern Caribbean has increased greatly because of adjustments to travel arrangements since the scaling down of the national airline Air Jamaica, and the alternative routes and times are less flexible. A typical flight to the Dominican Republic now has to go through Curacao, and based on the arrival and departure days, might include a stop over. That makes the cost even greater.