Brazil’s Pedro Oliveira & Henrique Barros and China’s Bai Bing & Wang Fan topped the men’s and the women’s podiums, respectively, at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Pingtan Futures in China on Sunday. Canada’s Jake MacNeil & Alexander Russell and Australia’s Jack Pearse & Paul Burnett completed the men’s podium. Italy’s Margherita Bianchin & Claudia Scampoli took the women’s silver, while the bronze went to Brazilian teenagers Julhia Perandre & Marcela Mattoso.
18-year-old Henrique Barros and 20-year-old Pedro Oliveira, who reached the semifinals of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship in November, now made it to their first international podium, climbing to the highest step and celebrating the gold medals. The 10th-seeded Brazilian pair allowed only one defeat in the six matches played in Pingtan, and that was in the Pool B winners’ match against Pearse & Burnett.
Pedro & Henrique’s last three games were decided in tie-breakers. In the quarterfinals, they achieved a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-9) upset of the home favourites, top-seeded Ha Likejiang & Wu Jiaxin. In the semifinals, they mounted another comeback to overcome Israeli qualifiers River Day & Idan Katriel by 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-7), and in the grand final, Pedro & Henrique produced a 2-1 (21-12, 13-21, 15-11) victory over third-seeded MacNeil & Russell.
The Canadian pair collected their third Beach Pro Tour medal, after claiming silver and gold from the Coolangatta Futures in 2022 and 2024. They reached the Pingtan final on a streak of four back-to-back victories, dropping only a set along the way, to Pearse & Burnett in their semifinal, which they won by a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 11-21, 18-16).
The second-seeded Aussies bounced back with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) sweep of the third-place match against Day & Katriel to pick up their fourth Beach Pro Tour medal out of four appearances as a team. Pearse & Burnett topped the podium at their debut at the Geelong in November. Then, they finished runners-up at the Futures events in Mollymook and Coolangatta, and now in Pingtan, for the first time outside Australia, they earned the bronze.