SVG to participate in qualifying round of Volleyball World Cup Championship

The SVG Volleyball Association has been invited to participate in the first ever qualifying round of the Volleyball World Cup Championship. The Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB) has decided to use the OECS tournaments (male and Female) as a qualifying tournament.{{more}} This is the first time that OECS countries have been given an opportunity to participate.

The SVG male and female teams have been training since October 2008 for this prestigious event with the assistance of Dan Gulianu, an FIVB instructor based in Barbados. Girleanu has been in SVG from October to February 2009 and this has been made possible by the National Development programme granted by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) in SVG. Girleanu was mandated to conduct coaching sessions to better equip local coaches to promote the game of volleyball and he has also visited schools here and worked with Physical Education teachers in order to develop volleyball in schools.

The male team was scheduled to leave St Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday, 15th April, 2009, for St. Lucia for the qualifying event.

The female team traveled in March to compete in their round of the competition and placed 3rd ahead of Grenada. Brenda Pinder was adjudged the best spiker of the tournament, while Simone Ackie/Defreitas was adjudged the Best Setter.

On the return of the teams, the national Volleyball League will begin in Middle may 2009. Over twenty Volleyball teams from all over SVG will compete.