Dominican Republic’s President Leonel Fernandez Reyna (centre) poses with players
The ceremony took place at the Volleyball Palace, a refurbished volleyball arena located in the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Centre in Santo Domingo with the presence of FIVB first executive vice president Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, the DR Minister of Sports Felipe Payano and Luis Mejia, president of the National Olympic Committee.
The Dominican President greeted each one of the member of the team before the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially re-open the venue which was first inaugurated for the 2003 Pan American Games held in Santo Domingo.
FIVB Hero Milagros Cabral, on behalf of all her Dominican teammates and members of the technical staff, handed Dr. Fernández Reyna one gold medal similar to the ones they accepted when the Dominican side booked their ticket to the Olympic Games at the NORCECA Women’s Qualification Tournament last month in Tijuana, Mexico.
Taking place a couple of weeks before the London 2012 Olympic Games, the 20th edition of the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix Finals promises to be one of the most exciting.
Dominican Republic and USA, two teams already qualified to the London Olympic Games, will compete along with Germany and Chinese Taipei in the first of three consecutive weekends of the preliminary round.
The Finals will take place in Ningbo, China with the best five teams joining hosts China from June 27 to July 1.
Two other teams of NORCECA, Cuba and Puerto Rico, are part of the 16-team field contending in the FIVB premier women’s annual event.
Puerto Rico will start playing in Macau, China along with teams from Argentina, Thailand and hosts China. Cuba play teams from Japan, Turkey and hosts Korea in the city of Busan. Italy, Brazil, Serbia and hosts Poland will play in the city of Lodz.
