Welcome to the Road to Adelaide, our series breaking down the race to qualifying for the 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 Challenge event in Mexico. There is a country quota of four teams per federation who can qualify. 

When Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher held off Brazil’s Carol Salgado and Rebecca Cavalcanti to seal up their gold medal at the Brasilia Elite16 last Sunday, they didn’t just complete their podium sweep for the season — they won bronze in Quintana Roo, Mexico, silver in Saquarema, and now gold in Brasilia — they jumped to the No. 2 rank in the World Championships qualification standings, and No. 1 in average points. The details for how one qualifies are noted above, and Nuss and Brasher are a virtual lock already, but still: Claiming the top seed is no small feat — and no small advantage either. Below are the women’s World Championships standings following the Saquarema Elite16.

Women’s World Championships Standings

  1. Carol Salgado, Rebecca Cavalcanti, Brazil: 3360 (4)
  2. Kristen Nuss, Taryn Brasher, USA: 3300 (3)
  3. Terese Cannon, Megan Kraft, USA: 2620 (3)
  4. Reka Orsi Toth, Valentina Gottardi, Italy: 2570 (4)
  5. Ana Patricia Silva, Duda Lisboa, Brazil: 2360 (3)
  6. Thamela Coradelli, Victoria Lopes, Brazil: 2260 (3)
  7. Kelly Cheng, Molly Shaw, USA: 2260 (3)
  8. Claudia Scampoli, Giada Bianchi, Italy: 2250 (4)
  9. Dorina Klinger, Ronja Klinger, Austria: 2120 (3)
  10. Andressa Cavalcanti, Taina Silva, Brazil: 2080 (5)
  11. Tanja Huberli, Leona Kernen, Switzerland: 1980 (3)
  12. Svenja Muller, Cinja Tillmann, Germany: 1760 (2)
  13. Toni Rodriguez, Kylie DeBerg, USA: 1740 (4)
  14. Emi van Driel, Wies Bekhuis, Netherlands: 1680 (4)
  15. Monika Paulikiene, Aine Raupelyte, Lithuania: 1640 (4)
  16. Lezana Placette, Alexia Richard, France: 1560 (4)
  17. Shaunna Polley, Olivia MacDonald, New Zealand: 1536 (6)
  18. Maddie Anderson, Brook Bauer, USA: 1520 (4)
  19. Taru Lahti, Niina Ahtiainen, Finland: 1440 (4)
  20. Aline Chamereau, Clemence Vieira, France: 1400 (4)
  21. Melissa Humana-Paredes, Brandie Wilkerson, Canada: 1360 (2)
  22. Tina Graudina, Anastasija Samoilova, Latvia: 1360 (2)
  23. Taliqua Clancy, Jana Milutinovic, Australia: 1260 (4)
  24. Michelle Valiente, Giuliana Poletti, Paraguay: 1242 (4)
  25. Anouk Verge-Depre, Zoe Verge-Depre, Switzerland: 1200 (2)

Stefan Boermans

Men’s World Championships Standings

Similar to Kristen Nuss and Taryn Brasher, while Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot, and Anders Mol and Christian Sorum are not technically leading the World Championships standings, they may as well be, as their average of 1,100 points per event leads the pack. As mentioned above, we are early — early — in the World Champs qualifying process, so the true standings won’t be taking shape for a bit, but these are indicative of early trends and where averages might need to be to punch that ticket to Australia.

  1. Jorge Alayo, Noslen Diaz, Cuba: 2940 (4)
  2. Tomas Capogrosso, Nico Capogrosso, Argentina: 2620 (3)
  3. Stefan Boermans, Yorick de Groot, Netherlands: 2200 (2)
  4. Anders Mol, Christian Sorum, Norway: 2200 (2)
  5. Evandro Goncalves, Arthur Lanci, Brazil: 2160 (3)
  6. Marco Grimalt, Esteban Grimalt, Chile: 2128 (5)
  7. Michal Bryl, Bartosz Losiak, Poland: 2100 (3)
  8. Steven van de Velde, Alex Brouwer, Netherlands: 2040 (3)
  9. Hendrik Mol, Mathias Berntsen, Norway: 1980 (3)
  10. Ruben Penninga, Matthew Immers, Netherlands: 1960 (4)
  11. David Ahman, Jonatan Hellvig, Sweden: 1860 (2)
  12. Sam Cottafava, Gianluca Dal Corso, Italy: 1840 (4)
  13. James Shaw, Chaim Schalk, USA: 1800 (3)
  14. Pedro Sousa, Renato Lima, Brazil: 1740 (3)
  15. Timo Hammarberg, Tim Berger, Austria: 1700 (4)
  16. Joao Pedrosa, Hugo Campos, Portugal: 1700 (3)
  17. Martins Plavins, Kristians Fokerots, Latvia: 1680 (3)
  18. Miles Evans, Chase Budinger, USA: 1600 (4)
  19. Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner, Czech Republic: 1560 (2)
  20. Lukas Pfretzschner, Sven Winter, Germany: 1560 (3)
  21. Arthur, Adrielson, Brazil: 1444 (4)
  22. Jacob Nilsson, Elmer Andersson, Sweden: 1440 (3)
  23. Sam Schachter, Jon Pickett, Canada: 1400 (3)
  24. Ben O’Dea, Jack McManaway, New Zealand: 1396 (6)
  25. Bautista Amieva, Maciel Bueno, Argentina: 1392 (5)