• Submitted by: admin
• Sports
• 01 / 29 / 2007

Cuba's beach volleyball team is aiming to boost its harvest of victories on the sand, and to win a medal in the next Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Daniel Reinoso, the top Cuban official in the discipline told Sunday's Havana media.

"This year our main objective is to be sharper," Reinoso told daily newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth), saying that hosts Brazil and the United States will be the two teams to beat in a classic Cuban phrase "their bones will be hard to bite".

He said it was essential for the team to take part in several World Circuit volleyball games, and also in the World Championships.

As well as the Brazilian competition, Cuba's volleyball team has other important commitments ahead: the first-ever World Under-21 Championships, the second edition of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) games in Venezuela, and the North and Central American and the Caribbean Circuit competition.

In 2006, the discipline was included for the first time in the National Schools Games, the largest high-level sport contest in the country, and in Cuban school's sports competitions.

Also in 2006, Cuba debuted in the under-21 beach volleyball World Cup, held in Poland, achieving a top 20 place in both men's and women's competitions.

In the two-player game, women's pairs Imara Estevez-Milagros Crespo and Tamara Larrea-Dalixia Fernandez were ranked 10th and 12th in the world, respectively; while the best Cuban men's pair was ranked 22nd.

Cuban volleyball teams won both the men's and women's titles in the 20th Central American and Caribbean Games, held in the Colombian city of Cartagena de las Indias in 2006.