AUSTRALIA
The week before hosting the ongoing Futures event on the Beach Pro Tour, Coolangatta welcomed the second stop on the 2026 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour, dubbed the Mahindra Australian Beach Volleyball Championships. The two highest seeded teams in the men’s tournament lived up to their status and met one another in the final. Bracket leaders Jack Pearse & D’Artagnan Potts squeezed out a narrow 2-1 (22-20, 14-21, 16-14) victory over second-seeded Solomon Bushby & Justin Schumann and picked up the Australian title and their second gold of the season. The bronze went to fourth-seeded Robert Reeves & Matthew Abela after a 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) sweep of the third-place playoff against the mixed Australian-American pairing of Declan Tiso & Asher Gill.
The women’s final also offered a nail-biting tie-breaker. Third-seeded Stefanie Fejes & Jasmine Rayner topped the podium and claimed the Australian champions’ crown after a 2-1 (16-21, 21-13, 17-15) victory over fourth-seeded Germans Sandra Ittlinger & Anna-Lena Grune. In the bronze medal game, USA’s Kaeli Crews & Erica Brok produced a 2-0 (27-25, 21-15) upset of the second-seeded Australian-Russian tandem of Jana Milutinovic & Evgenia Ukolova.
Women’s results and standings
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand’s traditional Beach Pro Tour venue Mount Maunganui welcomed the fourth and final stop on the 2026 GJ Gardner Homes New Zealand Beach Tour. In a nail-biting women’s final, top-seeded Shaunna Polley & Olivia MacDonald celebrated a 2-0 (21-19, 33-31) victory over the second-seeded mixed duo of New Zealand’s Meile Rose Green and USA’s Avery Poppinga. Another mixed team, the Kiwi-Spanish combo of Susan Imhasly & Marta Monfort came back from a set down in the third-place match to put together a 2-1 (10-21, 21-18, 15-13) upset of third-seeded Lani Rawle & Grace Tiplady and earn bronze. The latter still won the season’s title of overall 2026 Tour champions.
Women’s results and standings
In the men’s gold medal showdown, second-seeded Joshua Tiplady & Gregory David Vukets mastered a 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) victory over bracket leaders Juraj Krajci & James Sadlier to top the podium. Before that, fourth-seeded Jamie Julian & Thomas Vesty produced a 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-11) comeback to upset third-seeded John McManaway & Thomas Reid and snatch the bronze. Krajci & Sadlier (pictured in the main photo; source: G.J. Gardner Homes NZ Beach Tour) were awarded as the overall 2026 Tour champions.
