Canada’s national men’s volleyball team has one last chance to qualify for the 2016 Olympics and three former Trinity Western University players will be in Tokyo to help lead the charge.
TWU alumni who are members of Team Canada include Langley’s Dan Jansen Van Doorn (Langley) along with Steven Marshall and Rudy Verhoeff.
The trio were named to Canada’s 14-man roster that will vie for an Olympic berth.
The Spartans trio have become regulars with Canada’s senior team as this will be the third consecutive major international tournament that they have competed in together. All three were part of the Canadian teams that competed at both the 2015 FIVB World Cup and, more recently, the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Edmonton.
This past year, Verhoff and Marshall played professionally in Germany’s top league with Duren and SVG Luneburg respectively while Jansen Van Doorn competed in Greece’s first division with Pamvohaikos.
The FIVB Men’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament (WOQT), which runs from May 28 to June 5, provides eight teams a last-chance opportunity to earn a spot in the 12-team Olympic tournament.
The tournament, which is a full round robin format and is combined with the Asian Olympic qualifier, will see the top three teams, excluding the best Asian team, secure places in the 2016 Olympic Games.
The last time Canada’s men’s volleyball team qualified for the Olympics was in 1992 in Barcelona.
Canada hosted the NORCECA Olympic qualification tournament in January in Edmonton, but came up short of a berth after losing its final match to Cuba to finish second.