Garcia, Arbasto bow out of AVC beach volleyball after matching PH’s best finish

Jude Garcia and Krung Arbasto. AVC PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Philippines crashed out in the men’s quarterfinals of 2021 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships in Phuket, Thailand on Friday.

Jude Garcia and Krung Arbasto, the last Filipino team standing in the competition, bowed to to Iran 2’s Bahman Salemi and Abolhassan Khakizadeh 19-21, 21-13, 10-15 and missed the chance to advance to the semis.

It was a still a historic moment for the duo, who matched the country’s best finish in the tournament since Rhovyl Verayo and Parley Tupaz made the quarterfinals in 2007 also in Thailand.

5th place #AsianSrBeachVollehballChampionship 🇵🇭💯🦾

— Jude Garcia (@garciajude07) November 26, 2021

This was the Philippines’ first participation in the tournament after 11 years.

The other men’s team of AJ Pareja and James Pecaña didn’t make it past the preliminaries.

The women’s pairs of Dij Rodriguez and Gen Eslapor and Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons, meanwhile, exited in the round-of-16 on Thursday.