Beach volleyball: Cuba A-Cuba B today in Varadero semifinal (m).
Cuba’s duos A and B will face each other today in one of the two semifinals of the men’s tournament of the second phase of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Circuit 2023, to be held at the Barceló Arenas Blancas hotel.
According to the North, Central America and Caribbean (Norceca) website www.norceca.net, the two Cuban duos Noslen Diaz-Jorge Luis Alayo and Lazaro Portes-Daniel Martinez will meet with the objective of winning, but only one will be on the way to the gold medal discussion, as the loser will have to fight for the bronze medal.
The other semi-final will be between the USA Field-Tucker and Mexico Barajas-Cruz.
This Saturday Diaz and Alayo defeated 2-1 (18-21, 21-15 and 15-13) the Puerto Rican duo Rodriguez-Rivera, and Portes and Martinez overcame 2-1 (22-20, 20-22 and 15-10) Canada’s McNeil-Russel, respectively, in the quarter-final matches.
The women’s pairs from the largest of the Antilles Yenifer Rivera-Amanda Armenteros and Nahomi Charlot-Maíkelín Drikno did not suffer the same fate, as they lost in the quarter-finals to the US duos Lindstrom-Van Gunst, 0-2 (11-21 and 13-21) and Mexico’s Torres-Gutiérrez, 0-2 (14-21 and 17-21), in that order.
Now they are looking for the victories that will guarantee them the fifth place, and their rivals on Sunday will be the Dominican Republic’s Ramirez-Payano and Puerto Rico’s Navas-Gonzalez, respectively.
In the group phase, Diaz and Alayo and Portes and Martinez finished first in groups A and B, with three wins and no losses, respectively, as did Charlot and Drik (D), while Rivera and Amanda (A) finished second with two wins and one loss.
The Norceca circuit is scoring for the North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation ranking, with the aim of qualifying for the Pan American Games in Santiago 2023.
