Bernard, Whitfield keep TT hopes alive

Playing in a three-team pool, Bernard and Whitfield shook off an opening loss to USA-A pairing Nicolas Lucena and Theodore Brunner 12-21, 14-21 to outlast El Salvadoreans, Luis Morales and Franklin Flores 21-10, 18-21, 15-10 to take second spot in the pool and a spot in the round-of-16 against Pool F runners-up, Nicaraguans, Ruben Mora and Gerson Contreras.

However, this was only confirmed after Lucena and Brunner stopped the Central Americans, 21-14, 21-13 in the final pool encounter.

The top ranked local men’s team of Simon Blake and Daneil Williams had a tough day in Pool E, losing both their matches, first against Canada-B, Christian Redmann and Maverick Hatch, 13-21, 15-21 and then against Costa Ricans, Bryan Monge and Zlatko Pisculis, 18-21, 18-21.

Last year on home soil at Mission Beach, Toco, Williams and Whitfield created history by securing TT’s first ever beach volleyball medal, bronze.

The top four ranked men’s team of Mexico, Canada-A, USA-A and Puerto Rico all topped their respective pools with 2-0 records and advanced straight to the quarter-finals

It was a much bleaker affair for the local women’s teams of Nancy Joseph and Ayana Dyette, fourth at home last year as well as Apphia Glasgow and Kinisha Marshall as they ended the first day with 0-2 records each and have no chance of qualifying to the main draw knockout.

In Pool A, both Heather Hughes and Lane Carico (USA-A) and St Lucians Dania Hamilton and Samantha Mann ended the first day with 2-0 records ahead of their group decider today.

Canada-A duo Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas and Sarah Day and Kaitlin Nielsen of USA-B also made 2-0 starts in Pool B for last-eight spots while Jamaicans Kai Wright and Shedeiky Hamilton and USA-B pair, Sarah Day and Kaitlin Nielsen ended with 1-1records ahead of their clash to determine the second qualifier from the pool.

Mexicans Bibiana Candelas and Marta Revuelta also enjoyed a 2-0 start in Pool C to seal a quarter-final spot with Cayman Islands’ Cristin Alexander and Jessice Wolfeden as well as Canada-B’s Heather Bansley and Caleigh Whitaker still in the mix to join them with 1-1 records each at the end of day one.

And in Pool D, Puerto Rico’s Dariam Acevedo and Vanessa Velez and Costa Ricans, Natalia Alfaro and Karen Cope also qualified at the end of the first day with 2-0 records.