Year in Review: Beach hopefuls from USA and Poland triumph as U19 world champions

USA’s Myriah Massey & Lily Davis and Poland’s Szymon Pietraszek & Jakub Krzeminski triumphed as 2024 U19 beach volleyball world champions for women and for men, respectively. Sofia Izuzquiza & Marta Carro of Spain took the silver and Sally Perez & Sarah Wood of USA took the bronze on the women’s side, while Matiss Salkovskis & Karlis Jaundzeikars of Latvia and AmirAli GhalehNovi & Habib AkbarzadehKashani of Iran completed the men’s podium.

The 2024 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships were held in Shangluo, China from August 27 to September 1, featuring qualification tournaments and 32-team main draws. A total of 49 women’s and 45 men’s teams representing 46 different countries from all five continental confederations took part in the competition.

2024 FIVB Beach Volleyball Women’s U19 World Championship

18-year-old Myriah Massey and 17-year-old Lily Davis started the tournament from the qualifiers, but eight wins and one loss later they could triumph as champions of the world. It was the third time in history a US duo claimed the U19 women’s world title. At the previous edition of the tournament two years ago, Massey took the silver medal in partnership with Ashley Pater, but now she went one step higher with Davis, all the way to the top of the podium. For Davis, this was the first major international competition of her career.

“The gold medal means everything to us,” she said. “Representing our country is a blessing. And I think just working this hard to win it all is a great feeling!”

In an all-American three-set semifinal against Sally Perez & Sarah Wood, Massey & Davis mounted a 2-1 (12-21, 21-19, 15-5) comeback before mastering a 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) sweep of the gold medal match against Sofia Izuzquiza & Marta Carro.

Before falling to the Americans and settling as runners-up, 18-year-old Izuzquiza & Carro reached the final on a six-match winning run, crowned with a 2-1 (21-14, 13-21, 15-10) semifinal victory over Thailand’s Varagkhana Sogalee & Somruedee Koedkaew. In 2023, the Spanish athletes triumphed as U18 European champions, but the U19 silver they claimed in Shangluo was the first world-level medal for either of them. It was also Spain’s best achievement in the history of the competition, after their compatriots Daniela Alvarez & Tania Moreno took the bronze in 2018.

In the bronze medal match, 17-year-old Perez and 16-year-old Wood secured a second American spot on the podium by delivering a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) victory over Varagkhana & Somruedee. After going through the tournament on a 6-1 win-loss record, they decorated their duo’s first world-level appearance with bronze, bringing USA’s total medal count in the history of the competition up to seven.

2024 FIVB Beach Volleyball Men’s U19 World Championship

To get to the top of the men’s podium, Szymon Pietraszek & Jakub Krzeminski achieved a fantastic streak of nine consecutive wins from the qualifiers to the final and dropped only three sets along the way. They claimed Poland’s fifth title in the history of the competition, and first since 2012. It was the second time the two 18-year-old Polish beach volleyballers appeared together at a world-level tournament as a pair. At their Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut in June, they also reached the podium, claiming the silver medals at the Krakow Futures at home in Poland.

“I feel really amazing! It is an unforgettable moment, which I will remember my whole life,” exclaimed Krzeminski. “It was a hard tournament for us, especially because we started in the qualifications and we were close to ending in the qualifications. That's why we are happy to come this far and win the gold medal for our country.”

In the semifinals, Pietraszek & Krzeminski hammered out a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) victory over Mexico’s Ines Antonio Vargas Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala Herrera. In the gold medal showdown, they defeated Matiss Salkovskis & Karlis Jaundzeikars in straight sets, but each of the two sets was decided by the narrowest of margins and the first was even pushed deep into overtime before the Polish duo could celebrate a 2-0 (25-23, 21-19) victory and the U19 world title.

After playing at two age-group CEV European Championships last year, 18-year-old Salkovskis and 17-year-old Jaundzeikars decorated their first participation in a world-level event with silver, Latvia’s fifth U19 men’s world medal. Two Latvian pairs had reached the final of the previous edition in 2022. Salkovskis & Jaundzeikars also started their journey in Shangluo from the qualification grind and eight wins later, after a streak that climaxed with a 2-1 (18-21, 21-16, 15-10) comeback in the semifinal against AmirAli GhalehNovi & Habib AkbarzadehKashani, they found themselves in a direct battle with the Poles for the world crown.

A three-set battle unfolded in the third place match as well. 18-year-old GhalehNovi and 17-year-old Akbarzadeh snatched the bronze after a 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-6) victory over Lares & Carlos Andres. At their first major international appearance, the Iranian duo achieved a 6-1 win-loss record and picked up their country’s first ever medal from a U19 World Championship.

FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships: all results

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