By: Iste Sesante Leopoldo
Philippines men’s beach volley pair of Jade Becaldo and Hachaliah Gilbuena made another historic win over seeded team of Oman in pool C (contributed photo by Eric Lecain)
THE Philippines men’s beach volley pair of Jade Becaldo and Hachaliah Gilbuena made another historic win over seeded team of Oman in pool C in the 17th Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Samila Open in Thailand.
The tournament is being participated by 49 teams coming from 16 countries including those teams competing for the world tour such as Australia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, China and Qatar.
Cebu’s Becaldo, a former key player of the University of the Visayas (UV) and Tagum City’s Gilbuena had a slow start after bowing to New Zealand, 21-16, 21-17.
“It was a tough game against the top seeded team but the team fought hard and was actually leading through most of the second set,” said Philippines Sports Commission (PSC) beach volley consultant Eric LeCain.
PHL beach volleyball player Jade Becaldo of Liloan, Cebu made an impressive performance. (contributed photo by Eric LeCain)
Although this is the first international beach volleyball tournament of Gilbuena yet he has not shown any sign of being intimidated with the presence of their seasoned opponents especially when they played against Oman in the second round.
“ I happy to be able to represent my country here in the Asian Tour. I’ve never seen men this big before, at first it was scary but now I am getting used to it”, said Gilbuena.
LeCain also said the team were playing against tall players, wherein the heat and the wind was a major factor. The first was a back and forth battle in which the Philippines came out on top. During the second set, team Oman changed tactics and led with a few tough jump serves however in the final set, Becaldo-Gilbuena managed to stay on top until they finally won, 21-19, 12-21, 15-13.
The Philippines will face the 2nd seeded team of KAZ in the round of 16. Next week the team will travel to Palembang Indonesia for the final leg of the Asian Tour.
“It’s great being able to play again outside the country. We are getting better and soon we hope to have a medal. Thanks to Chairman Garcia of PSC for this chance,” said Becaldo.
According to LeCain that this is one of the toughest tournament they have joined because of the presence of several seeded teams.
“There are no easy teams in the men’s Division. The first games were a shock to the new rookie Gilbuena but he is becoming more and more comfortable. The win they had today will boost their ranking in the Asia Circuit and help set them up for a good seeding in the Asian Beach Games in Vietnam. The Philippines is a small team however they are smart and very fast. The more tournaments like this the Philippines plays in the better they are going to become,” said LeCain.
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