Beach U18 World Championships 2026

France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland book men’s main draw spots at U18 World Champs

Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte power through the qualifiers with three straight-set wins

Published 06:49, 08 Jul 2026

Bezu/Hypolyte (FRA) vs. Polat Kemal Eser/Freddie J. (TUR) - Round 2 #112515417

France’s Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte against Turkiye in their second-round qualifier

France’s Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte were the first to secure advancement to the men’s main draw in Wednesday’s 2026 FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championship qualifications in the Hague. They powered through with three straight-set wins. The teams of last year’s U18 world champion Ludvig Ringoen of Norway with Liam Karlsen and last year’s silver medalist Filo Wust of Germany with Lasse Huper also made their way from the qualifiers to the main draw. The fourth ticket was earned by Switzerland’s Luke Koller & Liam Bigler.

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17-year-old Adrien Bezu and 16-year-old Quentin Hypolyte started their qualification campaign with an emphatic 2-0 (21-9, 21-7) shutout of Maurizio Bezemer & Tijn Boonstra of the Netherlands. In the second round, the French duo met the Turkish pairing of last year’s semifinalist Polat Kemal Eser with Freddie Jude Foks, but still managed a convincing 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) victory. Bezu & Hypolyte continued their merciless quest through the qualifiers in the deciding third round, where they mastered a solid 2-0 (21-8, 21-13) sweep of their encounter with Hungary’s Gergely Abel Szuts & Levente Kiss-Bertok.

Szűts/Kiss-Bertók (HUN) vs Bezu/Hypolyte (FRA) - Round 3 #112553811

France’s Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte celebrate their qualification for the main draw in the Hague

“It was hard to enter the competition today, but we managed to win all our matches by 2-0,” Adrien Bezu told FIVB at the end of an intense day. “We had a difficult game against Turkiye and we are happy to have won it and eventually passed into the main draw…”

“… And we play tomorrow,” Quentin Hypolyte jumped in. “I don’t know what to expect, because it’s my first World Championship. We are just going to play with a smile and that’s all.”

Hüper/Wüst (GER) vs Alisauskas/Gumbelevicius (LTU) - Round 3 #112564502

Germany’s Lasse Huper & Filo Wust in a deciding qualification battle

Germany’s Lasse Huper & Filo Wust were the other team that qualified without receiving any byes. They passed through the first two rounds of qualifiers with straight-set wins, but were pushed to a tie-breaker in the third-round decider. The Germans started their journey with an impressive 2-0 (21-8, 21-6) sweep of their opening encounter with Oman’s Haytham Al Breiki & Mazin Khalfan and followed up with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) shutout of Austria’s Paul Hohenauer & Ben Krainer. When it came to the crucial third round, Huper & Wust came back from a set down against Lithuania’s Laimonas Alisauskas & Lukas Gumbelevicius to celebrate a 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 15-10) victory and a ticket to the main draw.

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Reigning U18 world champion Ludvig Ringoen and his teammate Liam Karlsen of Norway started their competition straight from the second qualification round, where they nailed a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) straight-setter against Czechia’s Jan Kuthan & Viktor Korbas. In the third round, however, the Norwegians were also pushed to three sets, but persevered for a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-8) victory over Poland’s Karol Lunio & Wojciech Witkowski.

Switzerland’s Luke Koller & Liam Bigler had to deal with the pressure of a tie-breaker in their second-round match, where they outlasted Brazil’s Davi Schroeder Coimbra & Diego Da Veiga de Oliveira in a nail-biting 2-1 (18-21, 29-27, 15-11) turnaround. Then, they coped with Poland’s Alan Robak & Igor Gliszczynski in two sets, 2-0 (21-16, 21-19), to make the main draw.