Israel’s Elazar & Cuzmiciov rise in Xiamen for first Challenge gold

Israel’s Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov achieved their first ever gold in the Challenge category on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. After the bronze medals at the Bhubaneswar Challenge and the Nayarit Challenge earlier this year, they triumphed as Xiamen Challenge winners in China on Sunday. They had another two golds and four silvers at the Futures level in previous seasons.

• Watch the Xiamen Challenge on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

Australia’s D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse brought home silver to keep the trend of getting on the podium at each 2026 Beach Pro Tour event they have attended. Earlier this year, they celebrated the trophies at the Coolangatta Futures and the Tlaxcala Challenge.

2023 U21 world champions Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck of Belgium picked up bronze in Xiamen. It was their second Challenge-level podium, after the first place in Bhubaneswar, and fifth overall Beach Pro Tour medal.

25-year-old Eylon Elazar and 22-year-old Kevin Cuzmiciov won all six of their matches in Xiamen to conquer the gold medal. The second-seeded Israelis took their last two games on Sunday in straight sets. In the semifinals, they achieved a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) shutout of third-seeded Belgians Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck, and in the final showdown, they produced a 2-0 (24-22, 21-15) victory over fourth-seeded Australians D'Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse.

22-year-old Potts and 24-year-old Pearse went through the tournament on a 5-2 win-loss record, enough for a silver finish. They advanced to the final after a 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) sweep of their semifinal against 13^th-seeded Nils Gunnar Ringoen & Even Stray Aas to get back at their Norwegian opponents for the defeat they suffered at their hands in the pool final.

Vercauteren, also 22 years old, and Van Langendonck, 23, bounced back from the semifinal loss, their first setback of the tournament, with a 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 15-12) turnaround win over Ringoen & Aas in the third-place playoff.

A total of 58 men’s duos representing 21 different federations took part in the Xiamen Challenge. The Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines from May 20 to 24 is the next Beach Pro Tour event of this category.

Beach Pro Tour Xiamen Challenge: all results

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
VBTV
Beach Volleyball World Facebook
Beach Volleyball World X
Beach Volleyball World Instagram
Beach Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter