Duos from FIVB Volleyball Empowerment supported Czechia medaled in beach volleyball at the FISU World University Championships Beach Sports in both genders. At the event that came to an end this week in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, twin sisters Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova (pictured in the main photo; source: 2026 FISU World University Championship Beach Sports) celebrated the gold medals, while their compatriots Jakub Sepka & Matyas Dzavoronok picked up the men’s silver. Gage Basey & Thomas Hurst of the United States triumphed in the men’s competition, while Germany’s Momme Lorenz & Hennes Jorge Nissen completed the podium. USA’s Erin Inskeep & Ella Connor and Poland’s Julia Radelczuk & Maja Kruczek earned silver and bronze on the women’s side.
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, while the women’s duos capitalize on the coaching of Argentinean expert Sebastian Menegozzo.
At the World University Championship, Czechia’s Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova made an amazing run of eight wins in eight matches to grab the title. They dropped only a set along the way, in their 2-1 (21-19, 25-27, 15-9) semifinal victory over Poland’s Julia Radelczuk & Maja Kruczek. In the final, the Czech twins mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-13) shutout of USA’s Erin Inskeep & Ella Connor.
Inskeep & Connor also reached the gold medal showdown undefeated, without losing any sets in the seven games along the way. They crowned that streak with a 2-0 (21-12, 22-20) semifinal win over another Czech team, Valerie Dvornikova & Veronika Kleiblova.
In a hard-fought bronze medal match, Radelczuk & Kruczek got back at Dvornikova & Kleiblova for the three-set loss they suffered in pool play with a three-set 2-1 (18-21, 21-11, 15-12) victory for the third spot on the podium.
Women’s results and standings
In the men’s tournament, Czechia’s Jakub Sepka & Matyas Dzavoronok reached the final on a streak of seven straight-set wins that peaked with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-18) semifinal win over Poland’s Jakub Krzeminski & Aleksander Czachorowski, which guaranteed them a place on the podium.
In the other semifinal, USA’s Gage Basey & Thomas Hurst managed a 2-0 (21-18, 27-25) victory over Germany’s Momme Lorenz & Hennes Jorge Nissen. In the gold medal showdown, the Americans inflicted the Czechs their first sets lost in the tournament and beat them by 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) to bring home gold.
Lorenz & Nissen claimed the bronze with a 2-1 (21-10, 13-21, 15-13) victory over Krzeminski & Czachorowski in the third-place playoff.
29 women’s and 36 men’s pairs from 25 different federations took part in the FISU World University Championships Beach Volleyball in Figueira da Foz.
