PH beach volleyball team eyeing more competitions after Olympic dreams end

The Philippine beach volleyball team is set to take a short break after bowing out of contention in the AVC Continental Cup on Friday in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.

The men's and women's teams ended their respective Olympics qualification bids after losing their golden match in the tournament where only one ticket to Tokyo Games is at stake per gender.

The deadly pair of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons fell short against the duo of Alice Zeimann and Shaunna Marie Polley of New Zealand in three thrilling sets, 21-19-10-21,15-12.

Meanwhile, Jaron Requinton and James Buytrago faltered against Christopher Mchugh and Damien Schumann, 11-21, 15-21.

But these setbacks, according to head coach Paul Jan Doloiras, would only serve as motivation as they move forward with the program.

In fact, the seasoned beach volleyball coach bared that there are already at least four competitions in the pipeline that they are eyeing to join this year.

"As of now, the players are still resting so that their bodies can recover," Doloiras said in Filipino in a message to GMA News Online.

"Then we will polish what we lack once we get back to training so that we can prepare for the upcoming tournaments."

The AVC Continental Cup served as the first major tournament that the national team had seen following a bronze medal finish in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

"We have two tournaments in Negros, then Champions League in October. We are also joining an International League, so these are the tentative tournaments that we will join."

—JMB, GMA News