Austria’s Hohenauer & Poinstingl win Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games boys’ title unbeaten

Austria’s Paul Hohenauer & Martin Poinstingl pulled arguably the biggest upset of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games after edging out Germany’s Lasse Hüper & Filo Wüst by 2-1 (22-20, 13-21, 15-12) in the final on Wednesday to emerge boys' champions.

Hüper & Wüst were the prematch favourites on Wednesday having won the FIVB U18 World Championship in the Hague in July. However, they came up against a determined Austrian side led by Hohenauer who won three crucial block points in the tiebreak to turn the match on its head.

Hohenauer & Poinstingl remarkably won all their seven matches in the process dropping only two sets to top the Dakar 2026 podium.

“We had analysed a lot of Germany games and knew it was going to be close. We had to stay calm and I think we were a little bit better than Germany today in the pressure moments. It was a crazy game, the crowd was crazy and we are proud that we eventually won against a good team like Germany,” said Hohenauer.

“We came into the match with nothing to lose and I think that really helped us to just play our game. We didn’t play well in the second set so we had to stay focused in the third set especially on our sideouts. We’re really happy that everything worked out and we’ve emerged champions,” added Poinstingl.

Australia’s Ryan Edgar & Thomas Turner recorded a convincing 2-0 win over Brazil’s Gabriel Campos & Bruno Fellipe Lobo Silva Souza in the third place match to claim bronze. Edgar & Turner ended the tournament on an impressive 6-1 win-loss record with their only defeat being against Hohenauer & Poinstingl who beat them by 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) in the semifinals.

It was the third medal for Edgar & Turner this year after winning gold at the Asian U18 Beach Volleyball Championships in May and claiming silver at the FIVB U18 Beach Volleyball World Championship in July.

“We watched a lot of footage of them and knew that they’ve got an aggressive attacking style and tricky jump serves. We came up with a game plan to counter that and it worked especially defensively. We are so happy and more grateful for the sacrifices made by our families to come all the way here from Australia and support us,” said Edgar.

“I just have no words. We’ve been building towards this for so long and now that we’re here on the podium, I don’t know what to say. We’ve been on the podium at three international tournaments and it’s great to see that we can match the best teams in the world,” added the left-handed Turner.

Click here to visit the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games Beach Volleyball event page.