The Asian Championships were an annual event until 2024, but no edition was organized in 2025. The event determines Asia’s continental beach volleyball champions in both genders. This year, it also serves as an Olympic qualifier, just like the continental championships of the other four confederations taking place from August to November.
The best 24 Asian teams of each gender have gathered in Shangluo to contest the Asian continental medals and chase their Olympic dreams. They are split into six round-robin pools of four, with the pool winners, the pool runners-up and the two best-ranked third-placed teams advancing straight to the eighthfinals. The remaining four third-placed duos will set up two sixteenthfinal fixtures to determine the other two eighthfinalists. Quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches will follow on the way to Sunday’s continental podium in China.
The women’s lineup is headlined by China’s Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi. After a spectacular opening ceremony on Tuesday evening, the bracket leaders and home favorites took part in the first match of the Asian Championships. Two-time Olympian Xia and her teammate hammered out an emphatic 2-0 (21-4, 21-2) sweep of the Pool A opener against bottom-seeded Mongolians Anudari Erdenesukh & Khatanzaya Purevjargal. Yan & Xia are the highest standing Asian team in the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking, currently in number 25. With different partners, Xia claimed the two most recent continental crowns, in 2023 and in 2024, as well as those in 2016 and 2020, in addition to another three podium finishes.
