BEACH Volleyball Republic (BVR) national champions Team Ato Ni Bai and Team Tagum-Philippine National Police (PNP) lead the country’s contingent to the first-ever International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach Volleyball World Tour Manila Open.
The tournament, considered as the biggest international beach volleyball event to be held in the Philippines, kicks off from May 3 until May 6 at the SM Sands By The Bay.
The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour is the worldwide professional beach volleyball tournament for both men’s and women’s competition organized by the FIVB.
Jade Becaldo and Calvin Sarte topped the recent BVR National Championships to earn tickets to the World Tour that is brought to the country by BVR in its quest to give fans the best in beach volleyball action.
Also representing the Philippines are BVR runners-up Kevin Juban and Raphy Abanto of Team UV, and Ranran Abdilla and Edwin Tolentino of Air Force, as well as Kris Roy Guzman and Henry Pecana of Team Tigers.
In the women’s division, Team Tagum-PNP, composed of Lourdilyn Catubag and Karen Quilario, will lead the Filipinas’ charge together with runners-up Jackie Estoquia and DM Demontaño of Team Ilo-Ilo and Charo Soriano and Bea Tan of Seafront Residences. They will be joined by the pair of Dzi Gervacio and Sisi Rondina.
Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas Inc. Secretary-General Ricky Palou joined Soriano, Tan, Gervacio, Guzman and Pecana in announcing the tournament in a news conference on Thursday at the Coconut Club in Bonifacio Global City.
“It has been Beach Volleyball Republic’s dream to host the most prestigious tournament for beach volleyball,” Tan said. “We have been organizing and perfecting our own local BVR on Tour and it’s about time that the Philippines gets to see a world-class tournament.”
ABS-CBN Sports, as the official broadcaster of the tournament and will livestream all matches on the ABS-CBN Sports Youtube channel and will air the matches on the last day on ABS-CBN S+A and S+A HD on May 17 and 18 at 4 p.m.
Image credits: Alysa Salen