Ilongga Jovelyn Gonzaga and pair win gold in international beach volleyball stint

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Guimaras-native volleyball superstar Jovelyn “The Bionic Ilongga” and partner Dij Rodriguez recently reigned supreme during the 2022 Australia Beach Volleyball Tour Championships held at the Coolangatta Beach in Brisbane, Australia.

The championship tandem of Gonzaga and Rodriguez took down home bets Alice Zeimann and Anna Donlan, 18-21, 21-19, 15-13, in the Women’s Challenger Division I grand finals stage.

Gonzaga and Rodriguez’s beach volleyball stint in Australia is a part of their international training circuit for the upcoming 2022 Southeast Asian Games to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

During the three-day stretch of the prestigious tournament, the PH duo of Gonzaga and Rodriguez asserted their dominance after keeping an untarnished record in five total games including the grand finals.

Aside from the Gonzaga-Rodriguez pairing, PH men’s bets Ranran Abdilla and Jaron Requinton also won the gold medal in the Men’s Challenger Division I category.

Abdilla and Requinton swept their way into the grand finals with a score of 22-20, 21-17, against the tandem of Issa Batrane and Frederick Bialokoz.

Just like Gonzaga and Rodriguez, the Pinoy pair were also undefeated in all their five games for team Philippines’ second gold medal of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons delivered the silver medal for the country after falling short against Nikki Laird and Phoebe Bell, 18-21, 12-21, in the Women’s Elite group category grand finals.

Two other PH pairs gave bronze medals to the country: Nene Bautista & Gen Eslapor and Pemie Bagalay & James Buytrago.