Vercauteren & Van Langendonck top the men’s podium in Qidong
Japan’s Ren Matsumoto & Non Matsumoto (source: @jva_beachvolley)
Japan’s Ren Matsumoto & Non Matsumoto topped the women’s podium at the Qidong Futures and celebrated their first gold on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Stefania Kun & Lilla Villam of Hungary finished runners-up, while Quemile Vieira de Souza & Emanuely Pereira Cardoso (Manu) of Brazil claimed bronze. The men’s trophy went to Kyan Vercauteren & Joppe Van Langendonck of Belgium, while Mateus Rodrigues (Manaus) & Vilsomar Brito of Brazil and Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane of England brought home silver and bronze, respectively.
The 2025 Qidong Futures women’s podium
Second-seeded Ren & Non cruised to the women’s final on a perfect run, without dropping any sets along the way. In the semifinals, they produced a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) win over ninth-seeded Quemile & Manu. Only in the gold medal showdown, the Japanese pair was pushed to a tie-breaker resolution by third-seeded Kun & Villam as they achieved a tight 2-1 (21-19, 26-28, 15-13) victory to celebrate their first ever gold on the Beach Pro Tour. Previously, they had two Songkhla Futures silvers, one from 2022 and one from a couple of months ago. This was, in fact, the third tournament in a row, where they reach at least the semifinals.
The Qidong silver was also the first ever Beach Pro Tour medal for Villam and her 19-year-old teammate Kun. After losing their opening match in China, the Hungarians crowned a four-match winning streak with a 2-1 (19-21, 21-16, 15-8) semifinal win over eighth-seeded Caitlin Bettenay & Cassandra Dodd of Australia.
The bronze medal match also offered a three-set battle. Quemile & Manu beat Bettenay & Dodd by a hard-fought 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 16-14) to snatch their second bronze, after the Marica Futures in December.
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21-year-old Vercauteren and 22-year-old Van Langendonck have now medaled three times at world-level competitions and it was always with gold. The Belgian duo triumphed as U21 world champions in 2023, won the Bujumbura Futures in 2024, and now topped the podium in Qidong on Sunday. Similar to Ren & Non, the seventh-seeded Belgians won four matches in straight sets, including their 2-0 (21-10, 21-15) semifinal against Bialokoz & Batrane, and claimed a three-set victory in the final, 2-1 (21-16, 18-21, 15-6) over Manaus & Vilso.
In their semifinal, the Brazilians delivered a 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 15-13) upset of top-seeded Bintang Akbar & Sofyan Rachman Efendi of Indonesia. A week earlier in Qingdao, Manaus & Vilso started from the qualifications and went all the way up to the top of the podium. In Qidong, they almost achieved the same feat, only this time it ended with a silver for the 13th-seeded Brazilian qualifiers, still making it two finals in two Beach Pro Tour appearances for the team.
Bialokoz & Batrane also started their Qidong campaign from the qualifications and reached the semifinals with four wins in a row. In the third-place match, the sixth-seeded Englishmen bounced back from their semifinal loss to Vercauteren & Van Langendonck with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-15) victory over Bintang & Sofyan to pick up the team’s sixth medal in Beach Pro Tour history.
21 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams representing 14 different countries took part in the Qidong Futures. The next Futures event is this week, a women’s tournament in Geneva, Switzerland from June 26 to 29.
Qidong Futures: all results and standings
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