PH beach volley spikers post contrasting results in Asiad
At A Glance
- The Philippine men's and women's beach volleyball team posted contrasting fortunes on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the start of the preliminaries in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The Philippine men’s and women’s beach volleyball team posted contrasting results on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the start of the preliminaries in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The little-known pair of Khylem Progella and Grydelle Matibag made their ambitious campaigns felt with a hard-earned 17-21, 23-21, 15-13 victory over Hong Kong’s To Wing Tung and Wong Man Ching in Pool B of the women’s division at the Ningbo Banbianshan Beach Volleyball Centre.
The triumph, which came after 58 minutes of action, came an hour after Ran Abdilla and Jaron Requinton yielded to Indonesia’s Danangsya Pribadi and Sofyan Efendi, 13-21, 21-16, 15-8, also in Pool B of the men’s side.
Abdilla and Requinton showed chemistry and cohesion in the opening set, but their Indonesian rivals displayed more experience to recover in the second frame before setting the tone in the deciding third to clinch the victory.
Pribadi actually boasts of a bronze medal in the 2018 edition at his home soil but with a different partner in Gilang Ramadhan.
One more PH tandem in Floremel Rodriguez and Genesa Esplador are competing at press time in Pool F with hopes of also starting their bids on a high note.
The country sent a beach volleyball team for the first time since the 2006 Doha edition where Parley Tupaz and Rhovyl Verayo finished tied for 13th in the men’s division and the Fil-Am pair of Diane Pascua and Heidi Ilustre finished at joint seventh.