Beach U18 World Championships 2026

Germans, Norwegians and Iranians persevere for tie-breaker wins in opening main draw matches in Hague

Men’s pool action at the U18 World Champs in the Netherlands to continue on Friday

Published 04:49, 09 Jul 2026

Bockfeld/Faber (GER) vs Barham/Satiu (NZL) - Pool B #112760825

Germany’s Hendrik Faber in center-court action at the U18 World Champs

The men’s main draw at the 2026 FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championships served off on Thursday with the first leg of pool play and the participating teams hitting the sand in the Hague for their main draw openers. Three three-set matches sparked excitement among the fans and set the tone for more thrilling action in the days to come.

Watch the 2026 FIVB U18 Beach Volleyball World Championships on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

In the first match of the day that was pushed to three sets, Germany’s Ben Bockfeld & Hendrik Faber squeezed out a 2-1 (21-17, 23-25, 16-14) victory over New Zealand’s Mana Barham & Cruize Satiu to get their Pool B campaign underway.

“It was amazing! It was a really tough game. We won the first set, but then we lost the second. And then, the third set was really close,” Hendrik Faber told the FIVB after the match. “We were all emotions. We were excited. It was amazing to play on center court and the crowd was going crazy. I am really excited to play the next match on this court, in front of this crowd.”

The New Zealanders, who were among the “lucky losers” who made it to the main draw after losing a qualification match on Wednesday, managed to deny Germany’s first match point in the tie-breaker, but on the second, Ben Bockfeld stayed alert during the overpass to put the ball on the sand for the winning point.

“There were some really nice and long rallies. The New Zealanders played very well, while we played our system and maybe this is why we won – we stayed on our court, watched our side-out and let them make their points. We were lucky to win,” Bockfeld commented. “We are taking it one match at a time and, hopefully, we will win again.”

In the other Pool B first-leg match, Thailand’s Kulwisit Lunkthong Ritthikon Khunphathi nailed a 2-0 (21-12, 21-12) win over Cael Greenidge & Joshua Ashby of Barbados.

Khomenko/MERKULOV (UKR) vs L. Ringøen/Karlsen (NOR) - Pool F #112768487

Norway against Ukraine in a tough battle

In another three-set battle, the Norwegian pairing of Liam Karlsen with defending U18 world champion Ludvig Ringoen also snatched the victory deep into the overtime of the tie-breaker. They celebrated a 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 18-16) comeback win over Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khomenko & Andrii Merkulov to get Pool F underway. In the other first-leg match in this pool, USA’s Gavin Mortensen & Caden Phillips delivered a 2-0 (22-20, 21-14) victory over Japan’s Rikuho Kashiwaki & Sota Sugiura.

A tie-breaker match decorated the day in Pool A as well. Iran’s Amin Vakili & Amirreza Jamshidi Khalkiasari outlasted Canada’s Bruno Azevedo & Cameron Gibson in a 2-1 (21-16, 20-22, 15-6) duel. Meanwhile, top-seeded home favorites Sven van Groenestein & Kyan Bezemer mastered a 2-0 (21-10, 21-19) sweep of their opening match against Poland’s Karol Lunio & Wojciech Witkowski in the same pool.

Azevedo/Gibson (CAN) vs Amin/AMIR REZA (IRI) - Pool A #112793232

Iran in attack against Canada

The rest of the pools offered straight-set results in their first-leg matches. The second leg of men’s pool action will serve off on Friday at 09:00 local time (07:00 UTC).

2026 FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championship: schedule and results