MANILA, Philippines – While the Philippines beach volleyball teams are pinning to corner the gold in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, they are also on the prowl to gain a spot in the prestigious AVC Continental Cup Finals slated early next year.

Needless to say, the upcoming SEA Games also serves as the Southeast Asian Zonal qualifier for the continental tournament.

At both worlds, the Philippines’ beach volleyball athletes have good chances.

They had a good warm-up via the recently concluded 2019 Rebisco Beach Volleyball International Open at Sands SM By The Bay which the Petron Tandem of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons won.

Both Pons and Rondina also represented the Philippines in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Boracay Open.

As the host country, the Philippines is allowed to field two squads each in the women’s and men’s events.

The tandem of Dzi Gervacio and Floremel Rodriguez will also represent the Philippines for the regional meet.

For the men’s team, Edmar Bonono and Jude Garcia, and Anthony Arbasto and James Buytrago also hope to land on the podium.

The Philippines last won a medal in 2005 courtesy of the Fil-Am pair of Heidi Ilustre and Diane Pascua.

The beach volleyball event is back in the SEA Games after an eight-year absence.

Two gold medals are at stake for the Beach Volleyball event this year and will be staged from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 in Subic. (Lloyd Tagbago/IAMIGO/CNS)