RP volleybelles score high in World meet

Heidi Ilustre

Fil-Ams Heidi Ilustre and Diane Pascua dished their finest form as they made it to the Final round of 32 in the 2007 FIVB World Women's Beach Volley Championships in Gstaad, Switzerland.

It was the best result ever for a Filipino tandem in this elite sport.

They swept into the elite round after sweeping past Finland's Erika and Emilia Nystrom, 21-19, 21-18.

Diane Pascua

The Filipino pair actually finished in a three-way tie for first in Pool E but grabbed second place after emerging with the second best win-loss ratio with 1.333.

Ilustre and Pascua, bronze medalists in the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games, thus earned a spot in the round-of-32 where they are assured of at least $7,000 and 200 qualifying points to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The competition was won by the U-S team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. In winning their 22nd-straight international match before a jammed-packed centre court of more than 7,000 fans, they won a 21-16 and 21-10 39 minute match over Jia Tian and Jie Wang of China.

In the bronze medal match, Juliana and Larissa of Brazil won a gut wrenching 19-21, 21-19 and 18-16 match in 63 minutes over China's Xu and Zhang.