Four of the six medals at the fourth event on the 2026 AVC Asian Beach Volleyball Tour that came to an end in China on Sunday were earned by teams representing federations benefitting from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment support. Australian duos brought home three medals – Taliqua Clancy & Stefanie Fejes topped their second consecutive women’s podium on the Tour, while Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher and D’Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse finished first and second runners-up in the men’s tournament, also repeating their placements from the previous continental stop in Chinese Taipei. Also with support from the program, Japan’s Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami grabbed the women’s bronze. Jiang Kaiyue & Zhou Mingli of China pleased the home fans with women’s silver, while Iran’s Abolhassan Khakizadeh & AmirAli GhalehNovi triumphed on top of the men’s podium.
Volleyball Australia’s beach volleyball department has so far been funded with a total of USD 546,000 worth of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national teams in the sand. Michael Suter, Max Roiuk and Joey Yigit are in charge of the men’s pairs, while Brad Tutton coaches the women’s duos. 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.
Three-time Olympian and Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Taliqua Clancy and her current teammate Stefanie Fejes of Australia dominated the women’s competition in Yunyang. They dropped only a set in six matches played during the tournament to rejoice with the continental gold. In their semifinal game, the Australians upset top-seeded home favorites Yan Xu & Xia Xinyi with a 2-0 (24-22, 21-13) straight-setter and went on to master a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) sweep of the final (picture in the main photo; source: asianvolleyball.com) against another Chinese pair – Jiang Kaiyue & Zhou Mingli, who had not lost a single set on the way to the gold medal showdown.
Second-seeded Asami Shiba & Reika Murakami of Japan lost to Jiang & Zhou by 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) in the semifinals and that was the only defeat they suffered throughout the tournament. They bounced back with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) shutout of bracket leaders Yan & Xia in the third-place playoff to claim the bronze.
In the men’s tournament, Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis & Izac Carracher reached the last match unbeaten, with only a set lost along the way. They hammered out a 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) sweep of the all-Australian semifinal against D’Artagnan Potts & Jack Pearse. However, an injury forced them to withdraw from the final against Iran’s Abolhassan Khakizadeh & AmirAli GhalehNovi and settle for silver.
Potts & Pearse recovered from the semifinal loss, their only defeat in Yunyang, with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) upset of bracket leaders Wang Yanwei & Du Hongjun of China in the bronze medal game.
Abolhassan & GhalehNovi crowned their victorious run towards the gold medal match a 2-0 (21-17, 21-14) sweep of their semifinal against Wang & Du.
24 men’s teams and 22 women’s teams representing 15 different federations took part in the AVC Tour stop in China.
The next event on the continental tour will take place from October 14 to 17 in Doha, Qatar. Before that, the 2026 AVC Beach Volleyball Asian Championships will be held in Shangluo, China from September 2 to 6.
