Fil-Am beach belles resume Olympic bid

Unfazed by their setback in the recent SEA Games in Thailand, the beach volley pair of Heidi Ilustre and Diane Pascua resumes its quest for a berth in this year’s Olympic Games as the Fil-Am duo competes in four Asian events of the 2008 FIVB World Tour beginning in March in Australia.

Ilustre and Pascua, who failed to land in the medal round in the last SEAG after a quarterfinal loss to an unseeded Indonesian pair, are vying for one of the 12 remaining slots to Beijing in the FIVB World Tour.

They are set to slug it out with the other aspirants in Adelaide, Australia from March 24-29, then in Shanghai, China from April 29-May 4, before moving to Seoul, Korea for the May 13-18 event and then to Osaka, Japan on May 20-25.

Volleyball official Tony Liao said half of the 24 Olympic slots have already been clinched.

Ilustre and Pascua, currently ranked No. 34 in the world, need to advance to the main draw or at least finish 17th or better to earn enough points to make it to the last four Grand Slam events where they stand to earn double qualifying points. The Grand Slam tournaments are set in Berlin, Germany from June 9-14; Paris, France from June 16-21; Stavanger, Norway from June 23-28; and Moscow, Russia from June 30-July 5.  – Joey Villar