Cuban beach volleyball duo to play Norceca Beach Volleyball in Cayman Islands
Havana, May 17 (JIT) - The Cuban duo of Amanda Armenteros and Yenifer Lopez will attend the third stop of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Circuit 2023, which will take place May 19-21 in the Cayman Islands.
The cardinal objective of this, Cuba's first women's pair, will be to seek points with a view to qualifying for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, scheduled from October 20 to November 5.
"We have it a little distant. There are few tournaments in Norceca before the closing of that process. Now they must fight to be included in the top four and get more points, although we do not stop dreaming of a podium. They know what the goal is and are well focused," Alain Hernandez, head coach, told JIT.
The second stop in Varadero defined who will participate in the Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023. Amanda and Yenifer earned the spot by finishing sixth, while their younger compatriots Nahomi Charlot and Maykelín Drik finished eighth, although both detos with three wins and an equal number of setbacks.
"They were pretty evenly matched, we evaluate their performance of very good although they did not get medals as we are used to, but they fulfilled the objectives of the event. On the field they looked loose and combative, and with mastery of the technical elements," said Hernandez.
They value it this way because they lost to duos of superior quality and experience such as the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and beat teams from the other islands and others.
In the quarterfinals, Amanda and Yenifer succumbed to the later champions, Katie Lindstrom and Teegan Van Gunst (USA); and Nahomi and Maykelin to runners-up Atenas Gutierrez and Susana Torres (Mexico), who in the previous round in Aguascalientes won gold and bronze, respectively, with other pairs.
Armenteros and Yenifer experienced two of their three failures against Puerto Ricans Allenis Navas and Maria Gonzalez, the same ones who beat them in the dispute for gold in the First Central American and Caribbean Sea and Beach Games of Santa Marta 2022, in Colombia.
Hernandez recalled that "we cannot pretend that these novice players are at the level of Cuba's previous leading figures, inserted in the first world level, who won and lost with the best couples on the planet".
By way of example, he stressed that "the current girls began by making a few layups and today they already have 100, but there are those who compare them with Leila Martinez and Lidianny Echevarria, who reached 200. They are not even halfway through the work to be done".
