Norway’s Jonah Kjemperud & Sebastian Kjemperud (pictured in the main photo; source: CAVB- African Volleyball Confederation), benefitting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment funding, topped the men’s podium at the Bujumbura Futures on the Beach Pro Tour. Also enjoying support from the program, Czechia’s Jiri Dostal & Filip Rydval took the bronze, while two Japanese teams – Miharu Kashihara & Maho Yabumi and Riko Tsujimura & Kako Yajima – picked up silver and bronze on the women’s side. Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik & Tajda Lovsin triumphed with the women’s gold, and the men’s silver went to Benjamin Vaught & Wesley Jensen of the United States.
Norges Volleyballforbund, the Norwegian national federation, has so far been allocated a total of USD 252,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national beach volleyball teams, with Jetmund Bernsten in charge of the men’s duos. In addition, a USD 6,000 for a national team coaches development knowledge transfer program was granted. The Czech Volleyball Federation has been granted USD 252,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national beach volleyball teams and another USD 18,000 in national beach volleyball team coach development knowledge transfer programs. Their men’s pairs take advantage of Italian coach Andrea Tomatis’s expertise.
18-year-old Sebastian Kjemperud, a 2025 U18 world champion, and his 20-year-old brother Jonah Kjemperud cruised through the Bujumbura Futures undefeated, winning all four of their matches on the road to their second Beach Pro Tour gold. The Norwegian pair has now medaled at three of their four most recent appearances on the Tour. In their semifinal in Burundi, the top-seeded Kjemperuds lost their only set of the tournament, but came back to mount a nail-biting 2-1 (19-21, 23-21, 16-14) turnaround against fifth-seeded Czechs Jiri Dostal & Filip Rydval. In the gold medal showdown against eighth-seeded Americans Benjamin Vaught & Wesley Jensen, the Norwegian brothers mastered a 2-0 (21-9, 21-18) sweep.
Dostal & Rydval bounced back from their only loss of the tournament in the semifinals with a hard-fought 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-13) victory over 18-year-old Florian Manariyo and 20-year-old Don Carmel Gakiza of the host nation Burundi in the third-place playoff to claim the bronze, their first Beach Pro Tour medal.
The US duo lost two of their six games in Bujumbura, both to Kjemperud & Kjemperud, and that was enough for Jensen to decorate his Beach Pro Tour debut in silver. In their semifinal, Vaught & Jensen put together a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) win over sixth-seeded Manariyo & Gakiza.
The Japan Volleyball Association’s beach volleyball department has received coach support in USD 84,000 of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment funding. Their national team duos have been working with American coach Steve Anderson.
Third-seeded Miharu Kashihara & Maho Yabumi of Japan reached the final undefeated. They crowned their three-match winning streak with a hard-fought 2-1 (21-12, 20-22, 19-17) victory over fourth-seeded Yu Okuno & Nozomi Sekiguchi in an all-Japanese semifinal to secure their first Beach Pro Tour podium.
Another Japanese team, second-seeded Riko Tsujimura & Kako Yajima, hammered out a 2-0 (21-9, 21-19) shutout of compatriots Okuno & Sekiguchi in the bronze medal match and also picked up their first Beach Pro Tour hardware as a pair.
At their first Beach Pro Tour event of 2026, Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik & Tajda Lovsin celebrated their first-ever Beach Pro Tour gold. Previously, they had two silvers together. The bracket leaders did not drop any sets in the three matches played in Bujumbura. In their semifinal against Riko & Yajima, Kotnik & Lovsin produced a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) sweep, and in the final against Miharu & Yabumi, they delivered a 2-0 (23-21, 21-16) victory.
12 men’s and seven women’s duos from Burundi, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Norway, Slovenia, Tanzania and the USA took part in the Bujumbura Futures.
The next Futures stops on the Beach Pro Tour will be held from August 27 to 30 in Brno, Czechia and Modena, Italy.
