THE Beach Volleyball Republic (BVR) returns after a two-year hiatus with the first of a two-leg tour in a bubble setup on Friday at the famed resort town of Santa Ana up north in Cagayan.
Twenty-five teams—14 women and 11 men—are vying in the four-day tournament that opens its matches at 8 a.m.
The second leg will be played from October 28 to 31 also in Santa Ana.
Charo Soriano, one of BVR’s founders, said the restart will boost the sport as it tries to sustain the gains achieved from the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019 where the men’s and women’s squads clinched bronze medals.
The BVR on Tour is part of the national beach volleyball teams’ preparations for the Asian Seniors Beach Volleyball Championship set from November 23 to 27 in Phuket, Thailand.
“Besides sports really trying to come back, the message that we want to send to the public, the majority and the audience, as well as the stakeholders of volleyball is that sports is a catalyst of hope,” said Soriano, the Philippine National Volleyball Federation’s (PNVF) beach volleyball commission chair.
This will be the fifth time that Santa Ana will host the BVR on Tour, which is sponsored by Puso Pilipinas, Smart Sports, Santa Ana, Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Board Member Aj Ponce, Cagayan First District Rep. Junjun Nolasco, TikTok Phlippines, EVI Construction, Savepoint Plus, Xentro Mall, Toyota Tuguegarao, Ibuprofen Paracetamol Alaxan FR and the PNVF.
The event will be held under strict health and safety protocols where everyone will undergo RT-PCR test three days before entering the bubble and antigen test upon entry.
Competing in the women’s division are Creamline, PLDT, TM, Biogenic, Eastern Communications, Toyota-Tuguegarao, Black Mamba Army, Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors, Boysen, Delimondo and Good Health-CDO.
The men’s roster include Creamline, PLDT, ARMY-FSD Makati, DeliRush, Tuguegarao, EVI Construction and Negros Occidental Beach Volleyball Club.
The games will be streamed live on the Puso Pilipinas and Smart Sports Facebook pages and YouTube channels.
Image courtesy of Day Jones Daytime View