World Championships: George, Saymon Make Massive Breakthrough Heading Into Final Week

Welcome to the Road to Adelaide, our series breaking down the race to qualifying for the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships, which will be held in Adelaide, Australia, November 14-23. Of the 48 teams who qualify for the World Championships, 25 are earned via points, the standings of which are determined by your best six finishes in the 2025 year up through October 5, which follows a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Mexico. There is a country quota of four teams per federation who can qualify.

They were all but left for dead, George Wanderley and Saymon Barbosa. A partnership that, on paper, made quite a bit of sense was, on the court, not making much sense at all. Five months into the 2025 beach volleyball season, the Brazilians had just one decent finish to show for it, a bronze medal out of the qualifier at the Alanya Challenge in June. They didn’t even have another single-digit finish, much less a podium.

Then came Brazil. Elites in Joao Pessoa — George’s hometown — and Rio de Janeiro, the heart and soul of international beach volleyball. Here, at home, they came alive, stringing together back-to-back ninth-place finishes to vault up to No. 24 in the World Championships standings, hanging on to what might be the final qualifying spot into Adelaide with one event remaining: This weekend’s Challenge in Veracruz, Mexico.

George and Saymon are, for the first time all year, straight into the main draw. Because of the top-heavy nature of their finishes, all they need to tack onto their points is a 17th. A top-10 would be favorable, a top-five would, barring something wild, punch their ticket to Adelaide. Meanwhile, still in the hunt are Switzerland’s Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan and Yves Haussener and Julian Fredli, Chile’s Grimalt cousins, Austria’s Chris Dressler and Phillipp Waller, Germany’s Sagstetter Brothers, and USA Volleyball’s Chaim Schalk and James Shaw.

Men’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings

Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Norway: 6500 (6)
Stefan Boermans, Yorick de Groot, Netherlands: 6200 (6)
David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden: 5480 (6)
Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Lanci, Brazil: 5220 (6)
Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, Poland: 5020 (6)
Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz, Cuba: 5020 (6)
Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic: 4960 (6)
Jacob Holting-Nilsson, Elmer Andersson, Sweden: 4960 (6)
Steven van De Velde, Alex Brouwer, Netherlands: 4800 (6)
Cherif Younousse, Ahmed Tijan, Qatar: 4740 (6)
Tomas Capogrosso, Nico Capogrosso, Argentina: 4600 (6)
Martins Plavins, Kristians Fokerots, Latvia: 4240 (6)
Clemens Wickler, Nils Ehlers, Germany: 3940 (6)
Timo Hammarberg, Tim Berger, Austria: 3920 (6)
Teo Rotar, Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, France: 3880 (6)
Remi Bassereau, Calvin Aye, France: 3800 (6)
Mark Nicolaidis, Izac Carracher, Australia: 3700 (6)
Paul Henning, Lui Wust, Germany: 3620 (6)
Miles Evans, Chase Budinger, USA: 3560 (6)
Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen, Norway: 3500 (6)
Lukas Pfretzschner, Sven Winter, Germany: 3480 (6)
Joao Pedrosa, Hugo Campos, Portugal: 3460 (6)
Marco Krattiger, Leo Dillier, Switzerland: 3460 (6)
George Wanderley, Saymon Barbosa, Brazil: 3340 (6)
Pedro Sousa, Renato Lima, Brazil: 3220 (6)
Chaim Schalk, James Shaw, USA: 3200 (6)
Marco Grimalt, Esteban Grimalt, Chile: 3160 (6)
Chris Dressler, Philipp Waller, Austria: 3120 (6)
Adrian Heidrich, Jonathan Jordan, Switzerland: 3040 (6)
Matthew Immers, Ruben Penninga, Netherlands: 3030 (6)
Yves Haussener, Julian Freidli, Switzerland: 3000 (6)
Jonas Sagstetter, Benedikt Sagstetter, Germany: 2960 (6)

Giuliana Poletti and Michelle Valiente are moving up the World Champs standings/Volleyball World photo

Women’s Beach Volleyball World Championships Standings

While the men’s World Champs race is as thrilling as it gets, the women’s is rather ho hum. Little of significance has changed in the past few weeks. Paraguay’s Giuliana Poletti and Michelle Valiente have put themselves into contention, just 200 points out of qualifying. So has Lithuania’s Monika Paulikiene and Aine Raupelyte, Olympians who have struggled this year, boasting just two top-10 finishes — but one of those came in Joao Pessoa, a 600-point ninth-place finish that moved them from out to on the bubble. Both of those pairs, as well as Australia’s Taliqua Clancy and Jana Milutinovic, will be straight into the Veracruz Challenge main draw, all requiring top-10 finishes.