World Rugby have announced the dates and locations of the rugby sevens regional Olympic qualification tournaments, which offer six men’s and women’s teams the chance to book their place at Rio 2016.

The sides who claim victory at the tournaments will join the top four men’s and women’s teams from the ongoing World Rugby Sevens Series, as well as Brazil, who qualify automatically as hosts, and the final places will be decided at a repechage tournament, due to take place before June 2016.

“This exciting announcement marks another significant milestone as the global rugby family counts down to rugby sevens’ Olympic Games debut at Rio 2016 when we will see rugby’s first Olympians in more than 92 years competing on sport’s greatest stage,” World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset said.

“With rugby sevens enjoying unprecedented global profile and growth and the men’s and women’s Sevens World Series set to go down to the wire in this, the most compelling of rugby sevens’ years, I am sure that the regional Olympic qualifiers will be extremely competitive, underscoring the tremendous depth of competition around the globe.”

The first tournament will be held in Santa Fe, Argentina from June 5 to 7 and will see both men’s and women’s teams battle it out for the South American spot at the Games.

The following weekend, the American town of Cary in North Carolina will play host to the North America and the Caribbean competition, which will also incorporate men and women.

Europe’s women compete in Brive, France, from June 20 to 21 while the men will descend on the English city of Exeter on July 11 and 12.

The African women’s qualifier takes place in Johannesburg from September 26 to 27, and the Asian men’s tournament in Hong Kong follows on November 7 and 8.

Oceanic men’s and women’s teams will have their chance to secure a Rio 2016 berth in Auckland, New Zealand on November 14 and 15, and on the same weekend the African men’s qualifier will be staged in Johannesburg.

The series of regional Olympic qualification tournaments then concludes in the Japanese capital of Tokyo from November 28 to 29, and more details on the repechage competition will be confirmed by December 31.

“Rugby sevens, with its winning blend of high-octane action, close competition and entertainment, is proving a hit with young audiences, broadcasters and commercial partners around the world,” Lapasset added.

“This is why we believe that Rio will love sevens and we look forward to hosting fans in an exceptional arena at the very heart of the Deodoro complex where fans will experience the dynamic athleticism of our rugby sevens Olympians in a unique festival atmosphere.”

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IT’S FAIR COMMENT to say that when the UWI Games get underway in TT on May 21, the hosts campus will be hard-pressed to turn home advantage into victory. While not impossible, the odds are clearly against them. One has to look further back than the last three editions to find St Augustine top of the heap, and that fact is not lost on any of the campus squads preparing for the event, among which is the Women’s Volleyball outfit.

Trinidad and Tobago may boast of having the top national women’s volleyball team in the English-speaking Caribbean, but the records are not so flattering for St Augustine at the UWI Games. The women’s title has eluded them in recent times; Mona Campus took it in TT 2009, the hosts Cave Hill did so in 2011 and repeated as women’s champions at Mona in 2013.

Macsood Ali, the long-standing St Augustine women’s coach, could not immediately recall their last victory. “Over the years, we win some and we normally come second,” he told Newsday. “We never really come third.” Ali has been a national coach since 1992; he is head coach at El Socorro-based Glamorgan and he also coaches a number of secondary school teams, as well as the St Augustine campus squad.

Fine-tuning for this month’s campaign was moved to the Eastern Credit Union La Joya auditorium, as the UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre (UWI-SPEC) facility is booked for campus examinations.

Exams are also playing havoc with their sessions, but the players are quite upbeat in spite of all the challenges. Shushanna Marshall, an outside-hitter, says they make adjustments as necessary. “Some of the players aren’t here right now, but we understand that education is priority. You would like everyone to come out, but at vital times, once we have a setter and you have the outside attackers like myself, Avi and Mershawna, who’s also a libero, it works.”

Marshall, a 25-year-old Masters student in Agri Safety & Quality Assurance, has developed rapidly as a player since taking up the sport eight years ago; she was a member of the team that finished runners-up at Mona in 2013, and recently captained Glamorgan in the Super League.

Avoni Seymour, a Bahamian national team player is another the team will rely heavily on. “I understand some of the girls are new, but some of them are really good, like Shushanna.” An outside-hitter and defensive specialist, Avoni says she enjoys helping her less-experienced teammates. One of three players who are studying medicine, she says that by means of time management, the sport is an asset in her academic pursuits. “I love sports in general, but I focus my time on my schooling and my part-time job at the university, as well as training for volleyball; and volleyball is also a stress reliever for me so I use it to help balance off my schooling with my job.”

The team also includes two players who have represented TT at junior international level. Assisted by his son Saleem, a former national Men’s player, Coach Ali says they basically work on every aspect of the game. “Physical fitness, drills, then probably one part of the game you want to work on, maybe tonight, middle-blocking; you work on parts of the game you think you’re weak in, and try to develop all aspects.”

If they can pull it off, victory would go a long way towards St Augustine taking the title of champion Campus.

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Melissa Joseph, 20, is keen on bringing glory to Trinidad and Tobago at the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships and 2016 Olympics.

Joseph, is a US-based, American born, WTF Global Licensed Taekwondo athlete, born to TT parents.

She represented the USA, competing at an International level, but has switched allegiances to Trinidad and Tobago.

Joseph is a multiple international taekwondo medallist and has performed at the top “G” ranked status tournaments.

She has displayed resounding ambition and talent, exemplifying a serious nature regarding her career. Such testament to her diversity is that Joseph is a former Miss Horizonte Pageant (representing Trinidad and Tobago) third runner-up in 2012.

She has been selected by the Trinidad and Tobago Taekwondo Association to represent the national team, with two main goals — the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Chelybinsk, Russia from May 12-18, as well as the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. These games are the dual pinnacle in the world for taekwondo.

Joseph is currently a medical student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, so between studies, charity work and professional competition, her goals are lofty but she believes they are attainable because of her ambitious nature.

Training out of two taekwondo training bases in Orlando and Tampa, Florida, Joseph is intent on pursuing excellence. Persons interested in funding Joseph’s quest for these Games can go to http://www.gofundme.com/r63bq5g. Joseph can be contacted via her fan club email at mjtkdintlmedalist@yahoo.com.

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The Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC), Mrs. Annette Knott, is representing the National Olympic Committee at the 13^th International Session for Directors of National Olympic Academies (NOA) in Olympia, Greece. The main subject of the programme is the Olympic Values with a special focus on the “The Value of Excellence as an Educational Tool”.

The Session began with the opening ceremony on Sunday 3rd May which followed with a lecture by Mr. Conrado Durantez (ESP), President of the Paniberican Association of Olympic Academies, President of the National Olympic Academy of Spain, on the subject: “The Role of the IOA in the spread of the Olympic Ideal”.

A key moment at the opening ceremony was the laying of the wreath at the stele of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, renovator of the modern Olympic Games. His heart is buried at this memorial at the Olympic Academy.

Also attending from the Caribbean is Dave Farmer Director of NOA (Barbados), Curtis Smith NOA Member (Barbados), Alfred Emmanuel, Secretary General of St. Lucia Olympic Committee and President of NOA (St. Lucia) and Keith Joseph, Secretary General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee and President of NOA (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s female beach volleyball players advanced to the second round of regional qualifying for the Olympic Games in impressive fashion Friday at Ocho Rios Beach, Jamaica. After getting a bye in the first round of the CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) tournament, the No. 2 seeds brushed aside Haiti 2-0 to secure one of the six places in the second of four rounds of qualifying in the NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) region. Apphia Glasgow and La Teisha Joseph, quarterfinalists in the opening leg of the NORCECA Tour last weekend in Cayman Islands, got the ball rolling with a 21-12, 21-17 triumph over Djoulissa Marthe and Solaida Pierre. And then Elki Philip and Shenelle Gordon completed the job by whipping Caroline Graham and Graziella Chery 21-11, 21-17. Haiti had beaten Bahamas 2-0 in the first round and the other three first-round winners were also beaten in the second when they came up against seeded countries. Curacao cruised past Martinque, but then went under by the same score line against Barbados, while Jamaica were 2-0 winners over Guadeloupe, 2-0 winners over Aruba earlier in the day. And after a 2-0 triumph over the United States Virgin Islands, Suriname were edged by Cayman Islands. Haiti, Guadeloupe, Curacao and Suriname battled yesterday to determine the two countries to move into the second round of regional qualifying alongside Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and T&T. The top six CAZOVA teams will battle against the top six in the ECVA (Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association) in the second round on a date and at the venue to be determined.  Champions will be crowned in this weekend’s tournament this afternoon after semifinals in the morning. T&T were scheduled to face Cayman Islands yesterday for a place in the last four. The opening round of CAZOVA men’s qualifying will take place in Trinidad at Saith Park, Chaguanas, from Friday until Sunday.

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