TRINIDAD and Tobago are the top-ranked of the 12 countries involved in the opening leg of CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) women’s beach qualifying for the Olympic Games. The tournament will be contested from today until Sunday in Jamaica and the countries which finish in the first six positions will advance to the second of four rounds of NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) qualifying for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, which will be staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August next year. T&T, Curacao, United States Virgin Islands and Barbados, the four highest ranked countries, respectively, in this competition will receive byes into the second round and will only have to beat one country to move forward. The other countries involved are Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Suriname and host nation Jamaica. Each country will be represented by two pairs and Apphia Glasgow, La Teisha Joseph, Shenelle Gordon and Elki Philip will be flying the red, white and black flag. Glasgow and Joseph had the ideal preparation for this competition last weekend when they reached the quarter-finals when this year’s NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) Beach Tour served off in the Cayman Islands. Glasgow, Gordon and Joseph are young and relatively inexperienced, but Philip is one of this country’s most accomplished players on the sand.