Bea Tan & Jade Becaldo Crowned King And Queen Of The Sands
- Jamil Buergo
- Jul 12, 2015
- 2 min read
Despite the threat of heavy rains that caused work and class suspensions in the metro over the past few days, the inaugural King and Queen of The Sands beach volleyball tournament went on as scheduled at the sands of SM By The Bay Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.
Jade Becaldo and Bea Tan emerged as the first King and Queen of the sands besting out the pair of Alexa Micek and Hach Gilbuena in the finals, 21-14, 21-16. Becaldo and Tan were seeded first after the eliminations as they came out with the best individual scores for men and women respectively. They beat Fiola Ceballos and Jeriel Apilar in the semis prior to meeting Micek and Gilbuena in the finals.
The whole day tournament featured eight men and women beach volleyball players. The unique tournament format does not have set pairs competing. Instead, each player gets a chance to pair with everyone of the opposite gender. Players are queued and they only get to know who they will play with (and against) after each game. This allows everyone to test their individual skills and how they adjust to playing with different partners. After playing with all possible partners in the tournament, individual scores are tallied and the top scorers get the chance to play in the semis and finals.
The women players who competed in this one-day tournament are Bea Tan, Gretchen Ho, Michelle Morente, Patty Orendain, Kayla Williams, Alexa Micek, Charo Soriano, and Fiola Ceballos. The men players include AJ Pareja, JP Pareja, Rocky Honrade, Jeriel Apilar, Tim Young, Jade Becaldo, Kris Roy Guzman, and Hack Gilbuena.
The tournament was organized by American beach volleyball coach Eric Lecain and Beach Royals Philippines. One of the pioneers of the tournament Gretchen Ho shared her group’s vision for coming up with the said tournament. “As athletes of the sport, we thought of creating this tournament to establish some regular activities for beach volleyball, something that has been missing for the past years. We also hope to grow our community of beach volleyball players in the process and be able to spread our love for the sport all over the country,” says Ho.
The King and Queen of the Sands beach volleyball tournament was presented by The Sands of SM By The Bay in partnership with Smart, Foton, Vitress and Hygienix. Other tournament sponsors were Beverly Hills 6750, Under Armour, Luna Coffee, Gatorade, and Footzeez.
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