Line-up for men’s knockouts at U18 Worlds in the Hague complete

Eight men’s teams won their pools at the 2026 FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championships in the Hague and secured direct passage into the second elimination round. Netherlands’ Sven van Groenestein & Kyan Bezemer, Germany’s Ben Bockfeld & Hendrik Faber, Italy’s Jack Bernardini & Federico Viscuso, Latvia’s Renars Lasmanis & Ernests Pastars, Lithuania’s Laimonas Alisauskas & Lukas Gumbelevicius, Japan’s Rikuho Kashiwaki & Sota Sugiura, Germany’s Lasse Huper & Filo Wust and France’s Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte jumped straight into the eighthfinals and await their next opponents among the other 16 duos that finished second or third in the final pool standings and qualified for the sixteenthfinal round.

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The Pool D third-leg match between Latvia’s Renars Lasmanis & Ernests Pastars and Venezuela’s Diego Hernandez & Santiago Camejo offered a direct duel for the first place in the pool as both teams were still unbeaten in the first two legs. The Latvians put together a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) shutout to top the pool with three straight-set wins on their record. Hernandez & Camejo finished pool runners-up, while Argentina’s Zac Osatinsky & Nahuel Cornejo beat Hungary’s Gergely Abel Szuts & Levente Kiss-Bertok for the third place and joined the Venezuelans into the sixteenthfinals.

“The first two games weren’t so good, but we still won. But in the last game, I think, we gave it all and we are really happy that we won the pool,” Renars Lasmanis told the FIVB. “Of course, we want to reach the top three. That’s our goal, but we will give our best and see how it will go.”

“These three games were so hard. We didn’t play well in the first two, but in the last game we played very well,” Ernests Pastars confirmed. “There was so much energy in this game, also because of our Latvian fans, and we want to say a big thank you to them. We will continue to work hard, because we need that to achieve our dream and get on the podium.”

Two undefeated teams went head to head for the first place in Pool B as well. Second-seeded Germans Ben Bockfeld & Hendrik Faber came back from a set down to mount a solid 2-1 (11-21, 21-16, 15-9) turnaround against Thailand’s Kulwisit Lunkthong & Ritthikon Khunphathi and booked their direct ticket to the second elimination round. The Thai duo finished second and were joined by third-placed New Zealanders Mana Barham & Cruize Satiu into the first elimination round.

The first place in Pool E was also contested in a direct clash between two unbeaten duos in the last match on the program. Lithuania’s Laimonas Alisauskas & Lukas Gumbelevicius, who entered the main draw from the qualifications as “lucky losers”, and Kazakhstan’s Alikhan Agabek & Orazali Sagynysh put together a fierce three-set battle for direct advancement to the eighthfinals, which went 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-8) the Lithuanians’ way.

Pool F offered an unexpected turn in its last leg. Japan’s Rikuho Kashiwaki & Sota Sugiura, who had been on 1-1 after the first two legs, mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 25-23) victory over the undefeated pool leaders – the Norwegian pairing of Liam Karlsen with defending U18 world champion Ludvig Ringoen – taking over top of the standings and the spot in the eighthfinals. Karlsen & Ringoen finished runners-up, behind the Japanese duo on point ratios. The third place in that pool was also decided on point ratios and it was USA’s Gavin Mortensen & Caden Phillips, who edged Oleksandr Khomenko & Andrii Merkulov into the knockout stage, despite losing to the Ukrainians in the tie-breaker of their last match.

Pool C was probably the most competitive one of the eight, with three teams finishing on a 2-1 win-loss record each. Despite losing their last match to Brazil’s Gabriel Campos & Bruno Fellipe by 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-12) on Friday, third-seeded Italians Jack Bernardini & Federico Viscuso emerged on top of the final pool standings to jump straight into the eighthfinals, leaving the second-placed Brazilians and third-placed Alan Robak & Igor Gliszczynski of Poland behind on point ratios and into the sixteenthfinal first elimination round.

Top-seeded home favorites Sven van Groenestein & Kyan Bezemer, German qualifiers Lasse Huper & Filo Wust and French qualifiers Adrien Bezu & Quentin Hypolyte all cruised through their Pools A, G and H, respectively, with three wins each and are already looking to continue their victory quests in the second knockout round on Saturday. While the Dutch and the Germans got the job done without dropping a single set, the French pair lost their first set of the tournament in one of their pool matches on Friday.

Men’s main draw action in the Hague is set to resume on Saturday at 10:40 local time (08:40 UTC). The day’s program will offer the first three elimination rounds to set up the semifinal line-up for Sunday.

2026 FIVB Beach Volleyball U18 World Championship: schedule and results

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