England’s Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane won their first gold on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. They triumphed at the Halifax Futures on Sunday, after defeating host country Canada’s Steven Abrams & Jonathan Pickett in the final. USA’s Garrett Peterson & Caleb Kwekel completed the men’s podium. Three teams from North America, USA’s Madelyne Anderson & Brook Bauer and Canada’s Marie-Alex Belanger & Lea Monkhouse and Mikayla Law-Heese & Ruby Sorra, lined up with the women’s medals.

Third-seeded Bialokoz & Batrane lost the Pool C winners’ match to sixth-seeded Abrams & Pickett and took the long route to the final with straight-set victories in the eighthfinals and the quarterfinals. In their semifinal, the English duo produced a 2-0 (21-10, 21-13) win over fourth-seeded Americans Jake Urrutia & James Avery Drost, only to face Abrams & Pickett again in the battle for the gold. Bialokoz & Batrane got back at their Canadian opponents in a 2-0 (21-14, 21-19) sweep to claim their first gold on the Beach Pro Tour. They had not medalled since 2022, when they picked up bronze at the Futures events in Ios and Ciro Marina.

23-year-old Abrams & Pickett settled for silver, happy to have earned their first Beach Pro Tour podium spot. They reached the Halifax final on a streak of four consecutive wins, crowned by a 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) victory over 15^th-seeded qualifiers Peterson & Kwekel in the semis.

At the American duo’s only second appearance on the Beach Pro Tour, they entered the tournament as the sixth seed in the qualification bracket. After five wins in row, Peterson & Kwekel were already among the semifinalists for the first time, and after the setback against Abrams & Pickett, they recovered with a 2-1 (21-17, 14-21, 15-11) victory in the all-American bronze medal match against Urrututia & Drost.

After a three-set defeat in their opening match, fourth-seeded Anderson & Bauer got on the winning track and lined up five victories in a row to claim the women’s trophy. The American team persevered through three-set battles in their last three matches to top the podium. After an extended tie-breaker in the gold medal showdown, they squeezed out a narrow 2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 17-15) victory over top-seeded Canadians Belanger & Monkhouse. While 22-year-old Anderson had already collected a couple of golds on her Beach Pro Tour journey with different partners, for 25-year-old Bauer, it was the first time to triumph on the Tour. The Halifax silver, on the other hand, was Belanger & Monkhouse’s first Beach Pro Tour medal as a pair.

In the semifinals, Anderson & Bauer managed a 2-1 (21-17, 15-21, 15-7) victory over second-seeded Katerina Pavelkova & Anna Pavelkova of Czechia, while Belanger & Monkhouse delivered a 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) win over another Canadian duo, 13^th-seeded qualifiers Law-Heese & Sorra. The latter pleased the home fans with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 15-12) comeback against Pavelkova & Pavelkova in the bronze medal match to make their first Beach Pro Tour podium.

25 men’s and 19 women’s teams representing a total of 10 different countries took part in the Halifax Futures. Next week, from August 29 to September 1, there will be two Futures events – in Warsaw, Poland for men and in Corigliano Rossano, Italy for both genders.

Halifax Futures: results and standings

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