Jamaica favourite to host 2016 CAZOVA Championships

Jamaica is to know by year end whether it will be selected to host the 2016 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Volleyball Championship set for July 7 to 17.

President of CAZOVA, Mushtaque Mohammed, visited the island from December 27 to 29, and toured the facilities that Jamaica would be using to host 16 male and female teams from across the region should it be successful in its bid.

Martinique is also in the running, but early indications are that Jamaica will be given the go-ahead to host the tournament for which Trinidad and Tobago are the male and female champions. The Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) successfully hosted the CAZOVA Beach Volleyball Olympic qualifiers earlier this year and won rave reviews for its organisation.

JaVA President, Rudolph Speid, is optimistic that Jamaica will be selected to host the tournament.

He revealed that CAZOVA is to donate an indoor volleyball court, which if it gets the tournament, JaVA will use as a practice court inside the National Arena.

During his short visit, Mohammed also met with Major Desmon Brown of Independence Park Limited (IPL) as well as Denzil Wilks of the Sports Development Foundation.

If Jamaica is selected, the tournament would be staged at the National Indoor Sports Centre (NISC) run by IPL.

Mohammed, who is also a vice-president of the North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation, was in attendance at the 2015 JaVA Senior Awards Ceremony held on Monday evening at the offices of the Jamaica Olympic Association on Cunningham Avenue, where UWI and Vikings received their awards as the champion male and female teams for 2015.