28 duos per gender are seeded directly into the 32-team main draw to get underway on Thursday. Action will start on Wednesday with three rounds of qualifications, which will fill the remaining vacancies in the pool phase. The 32 main draw pairs in each gender will be split into eight round-robin pools. The pool winners will advance straight to the eighthfinals, while the pool runners-up and the third-placed teams will have the chance to make it there through a sixteenthfinal knockout round. Both of these direct elimination rounds and the quarterfinals are scheduled on Saturday, leaving the semifinals and the medal matches for the climax on Sunday.
The men’s entry list is highlighted by defending U18 world champion Ludvig Ringoen, who will enter the Hague 2026 event from Wednesday’s qualifiers. He will defend the title he gained with Sebastian Kjemperud at the 2025 World Championship in Doha with his current partner, Liam Karlsen. Interestingly, Ringoen’s glorious campaign to the Doha 2025 crown also started from the qualification rounds.
“It has been a crazy year since we won,” Ringoen told FIVB. “It’s going to be difficult to take a medal again, but we are going to try. First, we need to qualify. We’ll take one match at a time and try to play our best. I play with a new partner – Liam Karlsen – and that will be fun.”
One of the silver medalists from last year – Germany’s Filo Wust – is also back for more with a new partner. He reached last year’s final alongside Jonathan Bungert and now he is hoping to enter the Hague field with Lasse Huper as a teammate.
Polat Kemal Eser of Turkiye reached the semifinals last year, along with Baris Guldali, but stopped just short of making the podium. Hoping to make it among the medalists this time, he will hit this year’s qualifiers with Freddie Jude Foks by his side.
The Doha 2025 women’s podium will be represented at Hague 2026 by Belgium’s Simone Vervloet. She and Lente Thant took bronze in Qatar. Still just 16 years old, Vervloet will try to make the podium in the Netherlands, starting straight from the main draw with new partner Tes Waegeneers, also 16.
The host nation will be represented by 16-year-old Jara Both & Matilda de Groot in the women’s main draw. Both finished fourth at Doha 2025 with Esmee Radstake and hopes the home-court advantage in the Hague will help her team tap into the medals this time.
