THE Philippine women’s and men’s beach volleyball teams left for Brisbane, Australia Tuesday night, as the country’s best sand court athletes ramp up their build-up for the 31st Hanoi Southeast Asian Games.
“This foreign training is of paramount importance, because it gives us a lot of exposure. Foreign training helps our national teams improve,” said PNVF President Ramon “Tats” Suzara during the virtual send-off press conference on Tuesday.
Among the women athletes who will going to the two-week Australia training camp are Sisi Rondina, Bernadeth Pons, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Nene Bautista, Dij Rodriguez and Gen Eslapor.
For men, Anthony “Krung” Arbasto, Jude Garcia, Jaron Requinton, Ranran Abdilla, James Buytrago and Pemie Bagalay are also hoping to gain valuable experience through overseas training that made possible with the help of Volleyball Australia.
The country’s beach volleyball program is on the rise in the past few years, highlighted by the country’s podium finishes by the women’s and men’s teams in the 2019 SEA Games.
Long-time partners Rondina and Pons are now ranked second in Southeast Asia behind Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat and Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee in the latest FIVB World Rankings released last Monday. The pair popularly known as “SiPons” are ranked 17th overall in Asia.
“Our goal is to gain more experience and look at our shortcomings as we prepare for the SEA Games,” said national women’s coach Paul Jan Doloiras.
Arbasto and Garcia, who made it to the quarterfinals of the Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships in Phuket, Thailand last November, are the third-best in Southeast Asia behind Thailand’s Netitorn Muneekul and Wachirawit Muadpha, and Surin Jongklang and Banlue Nakprakhong. The duo are currently No. 12 in the continental rankings.
“We are thankful for our first training abroad. We need to develop our team more,” said national men’s mentor Rhovyl Verayo.
By undergoing training to the one of the best beach volleyball programs in the world, Suzara is confident that the players, who also went bubble training in Subic for the past two months, will do well to achieve a breakthrough gold in the SEA Games.
“We should target for the best,” said Suzara.
Noric Ng, Business Unit Head of Rebisco, which has been supportive to the PNVF programs, believes that the beach volleyball team will do well, not only in the SEA Games, but also in the Asian Games in China in September.
“The desire to help our national volleyball program so our athletes can be competitive in international competitions is a sacred duty. We do it for national pride,” said Ng.