Tempo Desk
SANTA ANA, Cagayan ˗ After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic, The Beach Volleyball Republic (BVR) returns with the staging of two ‘bubble’ tournaments starting Friday at the famed resort town here.
A total of 25 teams – 14 in women’s side and 11 in men’s – are vying in the four-day competition which will start at 8 a.m.
The second and final leg will be played on October 28-31 at the same Santa Ana venue.
Charo Soriano, one of the BVR founders, expressed confidence that the restart will boost the sport as it tries to sustain the gains the league achieved in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019, where the men’s and women’s squads reached the podium.
The BVR on Tour will be a part of national women’s and men’s teams’ preparation for the Asian Seniors Beach Volleyball Championship, where the Philippines will participate on November 23-27 in Phuket, Thailand.
“Apart from sports really trying to come back, I think right now the message that we want to give out to the public, the majority, and the audience, the stakeholders of volleyball is that sports is a catalyst of hope,” said Soriano, who is also the Philippine National Volleyball Federation’s Beach Volleyball chairperson.
“By doing this, it gives a lot of hope to our community, to be more sprecific, thethe sporting community. Because we want to be able to show them that there are things that we still can do and look forward to even during the pandemic,” she added.
Backing the event are Puso Pilipinas, Smart Sports, Santa Ana LGU, Tuguegarao LGU, Cagayan Board Member Aj Ponce, Cagayan 1st District Rep. Junjun Nolasco, TikTok Phlippines, EVI Construction, Savepoint Plus, Xentro Mall, Toyota Tuguegarao, Ibuprofen Paracetamol ALAXAN FR and supported by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation.
