Szymon Pietraszek & Jakub Krzeminski are the 2024 world champions in U19 men’s beach volleyball. On Sunday, the Polish pair triumphed in the men’s final of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships in Shangluo after a narrow win over Latvia’s Matiss Salkovskis & Karlis Jaundzeikars. In the bronze medal match, AmirAli GhalehNovi & Habib AkbarzadehKashani of Iran claimed a three-set victory over Ines Antonio Vargas Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala Herrera of Mexico.

• Watch FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championship replays on the Beach Volleyball World YouTube channel

In Sunday’s gold medal showdown in the Chinese city of Shangluo, Pietraszek & Krzeminski defeated Salkovskis & Jaundzeikars in straight sets, but each of the two sets was decided by the narrowest of margins and the first was even pushed deep into overtime before the Polish duo could celebrate a 2-0 (25-23, 21-19) victory and the U19 world title. To get to the top of the podium, they achieved a fantastic streak of nine consecutive wins from the qualifiers to the final and dropped only three sets along the way.

Pietraszek & Krzeminski achieved Poland’s fifth title in the history of the competition, and first since 2012. It was the second time the two 18-year-old Polish beach volleyballers appeared together at a world-level tournament as a pair. At their Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut in June, they also reached the podium, claiming the silver medals at the Krakow Futures at home in Poland.

“I feel really amazing! It is an unforgettable moment, which I will remember my whole life,” Krzeminski said after the final. “It was a hard tournament for us, especially because we started in the qualifications and we were close to ending in the qualifications. That's why we are happy to come this far and win the gold medal for our country. It was a tough final. We had never met our opponents before as a team. It was hard to find the rhythm and a winning solution to win, but luckily, eventually we did.”

“We worked hard for this tournament the whole year. During the whole season, we kept one goal, which was to win the championship,” Pietraszek commented. “The feeling is great. But the work doesn't stop here. We want to be able to aim at even bigger tournaments. We really want to thank all of our coaches, family and friends. It was not just we who worked for the championship. It was the staff behind the scenes, including the coaches, the physicians and the psychologists.”

After playing at two age-group CEV European Championships last year, now 18-year-old Salkovskis and 17-year-old Jaundzeikars decorated their first ever participation in a world-level event with silver, Latvia’s fifth U19 men’s world medal. Two Latvian pairs reached the final of the previous edition in 2022. Salkovskis & Jaundzeikars also started their journey in Shangluo from the qualification grind and eight wins later, they found themselves in a direct battle with the Poles for the world crown.

“I would especially like to thank my coach, because he trained us all summer for this tournament. I want to thank everybody back in Latvia, who supported us and watched this game,” Salkovskis said. “We are going to continue training and get ready for next year's European Championships. We are really happy, but we are also a little bit sad that we did not win this match. I think we have to work on improving our service.”

“We need to work harder to get the first place, so we are going to push ourselves harder. It's a great feeling that we won the second place. The Polish team was good. They played very well,” Jaundzeikars added.

Earlier on Sunday, a three-set battle unfolded in the third place match. 18-year-old GhalehNovi and 17-year-old Akbarzadeh snatched the bronze after a 2-1 (21-15, 19-21, 15-6) victory over Mexico’s Lares & Carlos Andres. At their first major international appearance, the Iranian duo achieved a 6-1 win-loss record, suffering a setback only in Saturday’s three-set semifinal against the Latvians. It was Iran’s first ever medal from a U19 World Championship.

“We are so thrilled for this competition. Mexico are a good team and they were really strong, but we were stronger than them,” GhalehNovi stated. “Back in Iran, we also did a lot of training. I'm so grateful to our coach, family and friends.”

FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships: all results

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