FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries claim two medals at Pingtan Futures

• Canada’s MacNeil & Russell and Australia’s Pearse & Burnett reach men’s podium at Pingtan Futures with the help of Volleyball Empowerment coach support

  
  

• Brazil’s Pedro & Henrique and China’s Bai & Wang triumph as gold medallists

  
  

• Italy’s Bianchin & Scampoli and Brazil’s Julhia & Marcela complete the women’s podium

  
  

Canada’s Jake MacNeil & Alexander Russell (pictured in the main photo; credits: Rogue Gun Photography) and Australia’s Jack Pearse & Paul Burnett, both benefitting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support, earned the men’s silver and bronze medals, respectively, at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Pingtan Futures in China. Brazil’s Pedro Oliveira & Henrique Barros and China’s Bai Bing & Wang Fan topped the men’s and the women’s final standings on Sunday. Italy’s Margherita Bianchin & Claudia Scampoli and Brazilian duo Julhia Perandre & Marcela Mattoso completed the women’s podium.

Volleyball Canada has so far been allocated CHF 72,000 worth of coach support for their men’s national beach volleyball pairs and they have been training under the guidance of coach Josh Nichol. At the Pingtan Futures, third-seeded MacNeil & Russell collected their third Beach Pro Tour medal, after claiming silver and gold from the Coolangatta Futures in 2022 and 2024. They reached the final on a streak of four back-to-back victories, dropping only a set along the way, to Pearse & Burnett in their semi-final, which they won by a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 11-21, 18-16). They fell short in the final to Pedro & Henrique, also in the tie-breaker, 2-1 (21-12, 13-21, 15-11).

Volleyball Australia has so far been granted a total of CHF 180,000 worth of coach support for their men’s and women’s national beach volleyball teams. Coach Joey Yigit is in charge of the country’s men’s pairs. Second-seeded Pearse & Burnett were the only team that managed to beat the Brazilian champions-to-be in Pingtan. In the Pool B winners’ match, they achieved a 2-0 (22-20, 21-14) victory over Pedro & Henrique, part of a three-game winning streak that led them to the semi-finals. The team from Australia bounced back from their semi-final loss to the Canadian rivals with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) sweep of the third-place match against qualifiers from Israel River Day & Idan 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 Futures in November. They then 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.

18-year-old Henrique Barros and 20-year-old Pedro Oliveira, who reached the semi-finals of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship in November, made it to their first international podium in Pingtan, celebrating the gold medals. The 10th-seeded Brazilian pair experienced only one defeat in the six matches played in Pingtan (to Pearse & Burnett). Their last three games were decided in tie-breakers. In the quarter-finals, they achieved a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-9) upset of the home favourites, top-seeded Ha Likejiang & Wu Jiaxin. In the semi-finals, they mounted another comeback to overcome Day & Katriel by 2-1 (17-21, 21-15, 15-7), and in the grand final, they defeated MacNeil & Russell in a rollercoaster three-setter.

Gold medal winners, Pedro Oliveira & Henrique Barros (Photo credits: Olimpiada Todo Dia)

In the women’s tournament, 30-year-old Bai Bing, who returned to world-level competition last month at the Xiamen Challenge for the first time since 2019, picked up her first gold. She paired with 30-year-old two-time Olympian Wang Fan, who had already claimed one trophy on the Beach Pro Tour at the 2022 Ljubljana Futures. The pair went through the tournament in Pingtan on a 5-1 win-loss record, suffering defeat only in their pool winners’ match against Bianchin & Scampoli of Italy, who they then beat in the final with a tight 2-1 (24-22, 15-21, 15-13) victory. In their semi-final, the third-seeded duo from China also secured the win in three sets, 2-1 (21-14, 22-24, 15-12) against Brazilian qualifiers Julhia & Marcela.

In the other semi-final, the sixth-seeded Italians mastered a 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) sweep against seventh-seeded Linline Matauatu & Majabelle Lawac of Vanuatu, also beneficiaries of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support, to secure their fourth Beach Pro Tour medal. It was the first one Bianchin & Scampoli won outside Italy. Their showcase also features three gold medals, from Giardini Naxos 2022, Lecce 2023 and Messina 2023.

17-year-old Brazilian duo Julhia & Marcela started their Pingtan campaign as the eighth-seeded team in the qualification bracket. After five wins in a row, they lost their semi-final to Bai & Wang, but recovered with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-18) sweep of the third-place match against Matauatu & Lawac, crowning Marcela’s Beach Pro Tour debut with a bronze, the first Tour medal for Julhia.

27 men’s and 23 women’s teams representing a total of 18 different countries from all five continental confederations took part in the Pingtan Futures. China will host another double-gender Futures tournament this week, from 16 to 19 May, in Wuhan Qingshan. At the same time, a double-gender Futures event will be held in Cervia, Italy, while a women’s tournament takes place in Madrid, Spain.

Pingtan Futures: results and standings