Filipino women volley pairs in tough brackets
SANYA, China—Two Philippine beach volleyball pairs will be facing formidable opponents in group play at the start on Thursday of the sixth Asian Beach Games at Sanya Bay here.
The ninth-seeded women’s pair of Sunny Villapando and Grydelle Joanice Matibag will be campaigning in Pool H alongside Mongolia, Macau and Kazakhstan, while the 10th-ranked Khylem Progella-Sofia Pagara pair plays in Pool G against Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Macau.
Team PH will not be represented in the men’s division, even as 1,790 athletes from 45 member countries of the Olympic Council of Asia are competing in the Games, which officially opened on Wednesday at Sanya International Sports Park.
The beach volleyball tournament features eight pools each in the men’s and women’s divisions, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout rounds.
China parades formidable tandems, including Beach Pro Tour Haikou champions Dong Jie and Jiang Kaiyue in Pool A, while Japan’s Ren Matsumoto and Non Matsumoto headline Pool B. China’s Zhou Mingli and Kadeliye Halaiti, runners-up in Haikou, are drawn in Pool C.
Also competing in the women’s field are teams from Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, Malaysia, Syria, Maldives, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
