St Vincent and the Grenadines did not defend the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Junior Men’s tournament which was played in French St Martin last weekend.{{more}}

Head of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Volleyball Association Eardley Martin, in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Sunday, explained the team was unable to take part because they were informed at the last minute that they had to pay for the airline tickets for the team to take part.

“…The Association submitted its budgets at the beginning of the year, but did not include travel, because, over the past years, ECVA, NORCECA and FIVB paid the travel for all teams taking part in these competitions”, Martin said.

This was not the case this year.

Martin said that he only knew the arrangements had changed just prior to the commencement of the tournament.

“Two weeks before the French St Martin competition, we were informed that we had to pay the passage first and then they will refund the association part of the travel… We just could not raise the funds in that short space of time”, Martin stated.

However, Martin said that while St Vincent and the Grenadines missed the junior men’s version, participation of the junior women in St Lucia this weekend is definite.

“The Association though was able to get funding from the National Olympic Committee for the females to travel to St Lucia”, Martin confirmed.

St Vincent and the Grenadines won the male title when the competition was last held in Anguilla in 2011.

The 2013 edition has, however, seen minimal participation, as Anguilla, French St Martin, St Maarten, Dominica and St Lucia are the five who contested the tournament.(RT)