Hungarians go undefeated to the elimination rounds in Shangluo

The list of candidates to secure the title of the 2024 FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championship was narrowed down from 32 teams to 24 in each gender after the conclusion of the pool play phase in Shangluo, China, on Thursday.

The tournament continues on Friday, with the Round of 24 and the Round of 16 for men and women, which will be followed by the quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday. The medal matches will take place on Sunday, the last day of action at the venue setup at the Qinling Museum Square.

• Watch the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championship live on Beach Volleyball World's YouTube channel

Eight teams in each gender earned the right to skip the Round of 24 and will start the elimination rounds directly in the Round of 16 after they ranked first in their pools. One of those teams on the men’s side was formed by Hungarians Bence Tari and Ákos Veress, who topped Pool C with an undefeated campaign of three victories.

The two had a pair of complicated matches on Thursday but made through both of them, beating Poland’s Marcel Wanat and Tomasz Warych 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-9) and Brazil’s Juca Brandão and Gabriel Furquim 2-0 (25-23, 21-16) on their way to the top of the pool.

“I think the big thing for us today was perseverance,” Tari said after their first match. “We lost the second set, but we still had the power to beat them in the third. That was the difference, I think.”

Also advancing directly to the Round of 16 were the Netherlands’ Tom Sonneville/Bram van Der Wel in Pool A, Finland’s Veeti Viljamaa/Konsta Viljamaa in Pool B, Latvia’s Matīss Šalkovskis/Karlis Jaundžeikars in Pool D, Iran’s AmirAli GhalehNovi/Habib AkbarzadehKashani in Pool E, Italy’s Laurin Zoeschg/Matteo Lurisci in Pool F, Poland’s Szymon Pietraszek/Jakub Krzeminski in Pool G and Mexico’s Antonio Lares/Carlos Herrera in Pool H.

FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championship: Match Schedule and Results

On the women’s side, the pool winners were Spain’s Sofía Izuzquiza/Marta Carro in Pool A, USA’s Sally Perez/Sarah Wood in Pool B, Canada’s Ofure Odigie/Calinda Kok in Pool C, USA’s Myriah Massey/Lily Davis in Pool D, Germany’s Sophia Neuss/Anna-Chiara Reformat in Pool E, the Netherlands’ Trijntje Veerbeek/Floor Hogenhout in Pool F, France’s Saofé Duval/Romane Sobezalz in Pool G and Austria’s Lia Berger/Lilli Hohenauer in Pool H.

In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Australians Jasmine Rayner and Cameron Zajer defeated Brazilians Julhia Furtado and Marcela Barbosa 2-1 (21-19, 11-21, 15-12) – both teams advanced to the Round of 24 in Pool D.

“I think we stayed really close the whole game, being aggressive on our swings, trying to go for aces and not backing down,” Rayner commented. “Brazil had really good service pressure, so making sure we could pass the ball up in the first contact was definitely a challenge. They're also smart with their offense. They are a very good team, and we are really grateful that we could come out on top of that game.”

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