AVC Beach Volleyball Continental

Australia qualifies for LA 2028 men’s beach volleyball!

China and Australia to battle for women’s Olympic ticket and Asian continental title

Published 02:07, 05 Sept 2026

Nicolaidis/Carracher (AUS) vs. Cherif/Ahmed (QAT) - Semifinals #123237384

Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher celebrate their crucial semifinal win over Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan

A day before the finals of the 2026 AVC Beach Volleyball Asian Championships in Shangluo, Australia has already secured the continental ticket to the men’s beach volleyball tournament at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Two teams from Down Under – Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher and Thomas Hodges & Ben Hood – advanced to Sunday’s gold medal showdown in China, having thus secured a berth at LA 2028 for their country. Australia is also in contention for the women’s Olympic ticket, which is still up for grabs and will be contested by Stefanie Fejes & Taliqua Clancy and China’s Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi.

Watch the AVC Beach Volleyball Asian Championships on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

Third-seeded Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher put up a heroic semifinal effort against the biggest favorites for the Asian title – second-seeded Tokyo 2020 bronze medalists Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan of Qatar. In the deciding battle for entry in the final, the Australian pair came back from a set down to mount a 2-1 (14-21, 24-22, 15-11) turnaround after 56 minutes of play.

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Earlier on Saturday, in the semifinals, Nicolaidis & Carracher hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-10) shutout of seventh-seeded Pithak Tipjan & Wachirawit Muadpha of Thailand.

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Hodges & Hood delivered a 2-1 (19-21, 21-14, 15-13) comeback victory over fifth-seeded Indonesians Bintang Akbar & Sofyan Rachman Efendi in a quarterfinal clash, and followed up with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) upset of top-seeded home favorites Wu Jiaxin & Zhou Chaowei.

The home favorites on the women’s side, bracket leaders Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi, picked up the first spot in Sunday’s deciding final. On Saturday, they battled it out for a 2-0 (21-17, 23-21) quarterfinal victory over seventh-seeded Chinese compatriots Cao Shuting & Dong Jie, and then, mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) sweep of their semifinal against fourth-seeded Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald of New Zealand.

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In the last match of the day, the pairing of Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Taliqua Clancy with Stefanie Fejes, seeded second in the women’s bracket, produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) shutout of third-seeded Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami of Japan and booked the last vacancy in the gold medal matches. Fejes & Clancy also got their quarterfinal job done in straight sets, 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) against 10^th-seeded Khylem Harl Progella & Sofiah Shanine Pagara of the Philippines.

Sunday’s program in Shangluo will serve off at 17:15 local time (09:15 UTC) with the men’s bronze medal match between Wu & Zhou and Cherif & Ahmed, to be followed by the women’s third-place playoff between Polley & MacDonald and Shiba & Reika an hour later. The all-Australian men’s final will get underway at 19:30 (11:30), while the last battle for the women’s Asian title and Olympic berth between Yan & Xia and Fejes & Clancy will start at 20:30 (12:30).