The Philippine national beach volleyball team has flown to Brisbane, Australia Tuesday evening for the final stretch of its preparation for the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
None other than Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Tats Suzara confirmed the news during PVNF and Rebisco’s virtual send-off on Tuesday morning.
“We had a lot of discussions with the national team commission… with NT chair Tony Boy Liao, members of the board Ricky Palou and Sec. Gen. Don [Caringal] and all the other members of the board to push for this foreign training,” shared Suzara.
“Because this foreign training is of paramount importance because it gives us a lot of exposure and today, I think tonight, the beach volleyball national team will travel to Australia.“
Composing the women’s team’s first pairing are 2019 bronze medalists Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons. Dij Rodriguez, also a bronze medalist in the previous edition, will be joined by veteran Jovelyn Gonzaga in Team 2 while the returning Nene Bautista will team up with Gen Eslapor in the third team.
Over at the men’s teams, Jude Garcia, who also placed third in the past meet, will join hands with Krung Arbasto in the first team while Ranran Abdilla, who played a huge part in the Philippines’ silver medal in the indoor competition, is partnered with Jaron Requinton, another beach volleyball bronze medalist in the second team. Lastly, James Buytrago and Philip Bagalay will complete the third squad.
The beach volleyball contingent, composed of three teams each for the men’s and women’s divisions, was supposed to train in Japan prior to the biennial meet. However, the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country, along with the strict health guidelines, forced the federation to find other options.
Fortunately, Australia allowed the teams to continue their build-up there. The beach volleyball teams will also participate in one or two tournaments in Brisbane as part of its preparations according to Suzara.
“It was not so easy to find countries that would accept us,” bared Suzara. “Beach volleyball from the beginning we were supposed to go to train in Japan but because of the COVID situation in Japan so we had to find other options and finally Australia was able to accept us for our training.
“So, the beach volleyball [team] will go to Brisbane for a two-week training at the same time they will participate in one or two tournaments just to prepare for the Southeast Asian Games.”
High is the expectations for the beach volleyball teams as they look to finish in the top two come the Hanoi Games in May.
“Ang goal namin is makakuha ng maraming experience and makita kung ano pa yung kulang namin para mapagpreparahan pa namin yung darating na SEA Games,” said women’s head coach Paul John Doloiras.
“Pupunta po kami sa Brisbane mamaya to have [our] training saka magkaroon po ng exposure sa aming ensayo. Nagpapasalamat kami sa opportunity na ‘to na first training namin sa abroad, ma-experience namin yung abroad para makakuha kami ng bagong experience at para ma-develop pa namin yung team namin for the Southeast Asian Games. Hopefully, ma-achieve namin kung ano yung na-achieve namin nung 2019 and goal talaga namin is hopefully gold medal for the beach volleyball team,” added men’s head coach Rhovyl Verayo.
