Philippine beach volley squads fall, miss Olympic berth

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine beach volley teams suffered heartbreaking defeats Friday in the AVC Continental Cup in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand and kissed their Tokyo Olympics bid goodbye.

Jaron Requinton and James Buytrago succumbed to Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann, 11-21, 15-21, and Jude Garcia and Anthony Arbasto were trailing Maximillian Guehrer and Zachery Schubert, 4-12, before losing via forfeiture following a left knee injury by Garcia as the Aussies completed a 2-0 sweep.

Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons, for their part, were shown the door after dropping the golden match, 21-19, 10-21, 12-15, to Alicia Zeimann and Shaunna Polley as New Zealand took the win, 2-1.

The pair of defeats ended the country’s last hope of getting a slot in the sport to the Tokyo Games next month.