Fil-Am spikers earn berth in World meet

The Fil-Am pair of Heidi Illustre and Diane Pascua qualified for the 2007 Women’s World Championships slated July 24-28 in Gstaad, Switzerland, becoming the first Filipinos to see action in the prestigious event.

“Heidi and Diane earned enough points to qualify there,” said Philippine Volleyball Federation secretary-general Ottie Camangian. “This is the first time that a team from the Philippines made it there so this is history.”

The RP pair earned a total of 216 points to make it to the five-day event participated in by 48 teams from the world’s top beach volley countries headed by powerhouse United States, Brazil, China, Australia and Germany.

RP, in fact, is the only country from the Southeast Asian region to gain berth in the event and third in Asia next to China, which has three entries, and Japan.

Illustre and Pascua, gearing up for this year’s SEA Games in Thailand where they are bidding to improve on their bronze medal finish in the Manila SEAG in 2005, gained their points from their participation in six international tournaments, including a 17th place finish in the Montreal Open in Canada where they earned 90 points.

They also gained points in the Sentosa Open in Singapore (30), Marseille Open in France (15), San Sebastian Open in Spain (9), Esphino tournament in Portugal (9) and another event in Seoul, South Korea (9).      – Joey Villar