Daraine Luton, Freelance Writer
WITH THREE weeks to go before their biggest assignment yet, Jamaica's Riddim Girls have intensified their preparation ahead of the August 22 start of round two of the World Volleyball Championships qualifiers.
The girls who qualified for the Dominican Republic leg of the qualifiers after topping the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and the Netherlands Antilles here in April, have now stepped up their preparations to include weekend camps at G.C. Foster College.
The camps, which begin tomorrow, complements the weekly training programmes the players have been taking part in since returning from the Pan Am Cup last month.
In round two of the qualifiers, Jamaica will play the hosts Dominican Republic,, top ranked side Cuba, Costa Rica and Guatemala in the five-team group. Three teams will advance to the World Championships which will be held in Japan next November and national technical director Phillip Greenland believes that Jamaica can be numbered among them.
"We just need to win two matches and we are through. The girls know it and we are working with a view to achieving it," Greenland told The Gleaner yesterday.
Last month the Riddim Girls participated in the Pan Am Cup in Santo Domingo where they lost all five games which they played. The team lost to Cuba, the US, Canada, Mexico and Barbados.
However, Greenland said that the results should not be taken at face value as the girls garnered tremendous experience at the tournament.
TRAINING TECHNIQUES
"Our aims were to look at the people we will be facing and at the same time try and learn training techniques from the Dominican Republic - a team that has moved from nowhere to being in the top 12 in the world. The experience was very good, we learnt a lot and we also got some useful tapes of the Guatemalan team," Greenland said.
He added that the team, which trains Mondays through to Wednesdays at the University of the West Indies' Mona gymnasium, is in good health and looking forward to its big assignment. The final team has not yet been selected but he hinted that there should be no major surprises when it is named.
The Jamaica Volleyball Association is working overtime in order to get the services of two overseas players to join the team. Their names have not been release but Greenland has indicated that they are not new to the national colours.
