After losing as many as five Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour finals and collecting five silver medals so far, Estonia’s Liisa Remmelg & Heleene Hollas finally made it all the way to the top of the podium and won gold at the Wuhan Qingshan Futures in China. The women’s silver and bronze went to Thailand’s Tanarattha Udomchavee & Rumpaipruet Numwong and Vanuatu’s Majabelle Lawac & Sherysyn Toko, respectively. Slovakia’s Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf picked up their second consecutive Beach Pro Tour gold in the men’s tournament, while England’s Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane and China’s Wu Jiaxin & Zhou Chaowei completed the podium.

Top-seeded Hollas & Remmelg cruised through the tournament undefeated in five matches played. The only set they dropped in Qingshan was in Sunday’s gold medal match against third-seeded Udomchavee & Numwong, whom they beat in a 2-1 (21-12, 18-21, 15-9) three-setter to lift their first-ever Beach Pro Tour trophy. The only world-level gold the Estonian duo had previously claimed came some four years ago at a one-star FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event in Sofia. All their previous five Beach Pro Tour medals so far were silver.

In their semifinal, Hollas & Remmelg produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) victory over fourth-seeded Lin MeiMei & Xie Hong of China. Thailand’s Udomchavee & Numwong mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-5) sweep of the other semifinal against seventh-seeded Lawac & Toko to shape up a four-game winning streak and secure silver, their team’s first medal on the Tour at their second appearance together.

After suffering their only setback of the tournament, Vanuatu’s Lawac & Toko bounced back to achieve a 2-1 (21-15, 7-21, 15-10) victory over Lin & Xie in the third-place match to pick up bronze, the pair’s second Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Coolangatta Futures bronze in 2023.

Until this month, Slovakia had never earned a Beach Pro Tour medal and now, with Nemec & Petruf winning in Qingshan, they have collected two gold medals in a row. After the Slovakian duo also triumphed at the Nuvali Futures at their previous Tour appearance earlier this month, they repeated their success at the tournament in China and they did so in an even more convincing manner, without losing any sets in the five matches along the way. In the semifinals, third-seeded Nemec & Petruf put together a 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) victory over eighth-seeded Hungarians Bence Streli & Domonkos Doczi, before delivering a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) sweep of the gold medal showdown against ninth-seeded Englishmen Bialokoz & Batrane.

In their semifinal, Bialokoz & Batrane celebrated a hard-fought 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-10) win over seventh-seeded Wu & Zhou, which guaranteed them their fifth Beach Pro Tour podium. It was the first silver in the team’s history, as they had previously collected one gold and three bronze meals on the Tour.

After Streli & Doczi’s injury withdrawal from the third-place game, China’s Wu & Zhou took bronze, their first Beach Pro Tour medal together.

20 women’s teams and 19 men’s teams representing 12 different countries took part in the Wuhan Qingshan Futures. The next Futures stop will take place in Battipaglia, Italy this week, from May 29 to June 1.

Wuhan Qingshan Futures: all results and standings

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