Bintang Akbar & Sofyan Rachman Efendi claimed Indonesia’s first-ever Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold. They topped the men’s podium at the Wuhan Qingshan Futures after beating Brazil’s Pedro Oliveira & Henrique Barros in Sunday’s final. Australia’s Jack Pearse & Paul Burnett took the bronze. Teenagers Yan Xu & Zhou Mingli topped an all-Chinese women’s podium, with Jiang Kaiyue & Yuan Lvwen and Wang Xinxin & Xing Jiayi also delighting the home crowd with Beach Pro Tour medals.

It was only the second Beach Pro Tour appearance for the pairing of 23-year-old Bintang and 21-year-old Sofyan, after finishing fifth at their debut in Pingtan a week earlier. This time the Indonesians, seeded fifth in the main draw, cruised through the tournament undefeated in five matches played, dropping only two sets along the way, one in a tight 2-1 (18-21, 21-14, 16-14) quarterfinal against Thailand’s Pithak Tipjan & Poravid Taovato, and one in the final against third-seeded Brazilians Pedro & Henrique, when Bintang & Sofyan also came back from a set down to celebrate a 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-11) victory. In between, the Indonesians delivered a nail-biting 2-0 (25-23, 22-20) semifinal upset of second-seeded Jake MacNeil & Alexander Russell of Canada, who had defeated them in Pingtan on the way to a silver finish.

This time the silver went to 20-year-old Pedro and 18-year-old Henrique, who made it to their second consecutive Beach Pro Tour final, after winning gold in Pingtan the previous week. In Wuhan Qingshan, the Brazilian team crowned a four-match winning streak with a 2-1 (17-21, 21-18, 15-11) semifinal victory over top-seeded Pearse & Burnett.

The Australians bounced back with a 2-0 (21-16, 23-21) win over MacNeil & Russell to collect the bronze, their fifth consecutive Beach Pro Tour podium in as many appearances as a duo.

Indonesia did well in the women’s tournament too, but a trio of Chinese teams stopped Nur Sari & Desi Ratnasari just short of the podium. 19-year-old Yan Xu and 18-year-old Zhou Mingli did not drop a single set throughout the five matches played in Wuhan Qingshan to pick up their second gold and third overall medal on the Beach Pro Tour. In the semifinals, the second-seeded duo produced a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) upset of top-seeded Wang Xinxin & Xing Jiayi and followed up with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) sweep of the final against 12^th-seeded Jiang Kaiyue & Yuan Lvwen.

28-year-old Yuan and 19-year-old Jiang, who celebrated their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a team, also reached the final without any damages along the way, winning all four of their games in straight sets. In the semifinals, they achieved a narrow 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) win over Nur Atika & Desi.

26-year-old Tokyo 2020 Olympian Wang Xinxin and her 19-year-old partner Xing Jiayi also made it to a Beach Pro Tour podium for the first time as a pair, after mounting a hard-fought 2-1 (16-21, 22-20, 15-10) comeback against the Indonesian duo in the bronze medal match.

24 men’s and 21 women’s teams representing a total of 17 different countries from all five continental confederations took part in the Wuhan Qingshan Futures. This week’s Beach Pro Tour schedule offers a Futures event in Battipaglia, Italy, from May 23 to 26, while an Elite16 event in Espinho, Portugal takes place from May 22 to 26.

Wuhan Qingshan Futures: results and standings

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