The 2026 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour is set to commence with the Bhubaneswar Challenge in India, starting on Thursday, March 5. This event is an integral fixture on the beach volleyball calendar where top international teams compete in both Challenge and Elite tiers. The competition will take place at the Chandaka Industrial Estate, with the Czech duo Jakub Sepka and Matyas Dzavoronok taking a leading role.
Sepka and Dzavoronok, both aged 24, are the top seeds in Pool A. This follows their successful previous seasons where Sepka teamed with Jiri Sedlak, and Dzavoronok partnered with Tadeas Trousil, both achieving multiple podium finishes. The Bhubaneswar tournament marks their debut as partners on the Beach Pro Tour. They have been granted a first-round bye and will compete against the winners between Ukraine's Dmytro Kozii & Oleksii Bublyk or the American duo Gage Basey & Thomas Hurst, who were silver medalists at Mount Maunganui.
Other pool leaders who also received byes include USA's Evan Cory & Derek Bradford, Israel's Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov, England's Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane, and Norway's Nils Gunnar Ringoen & Even Stray Aas. Additional teams, such as Czech’s Tomas Semerad & Adam Stocek and Belgium’s Joppe Van Langendonck & Kyan Vercauteren, will start off in pool play to secure spots in the playoffs.
With 24 teams participating, the competition format consists of pool play leading to a single-elimination knockout stage. The event will kick off with pool matches at 11:00 local time (05:30 UTC) on Thursday. Volleyball fans can enjoy the action live on VBTV as they gear up to witness this remarkable first Challenge event of the season.
For further information, please visit the official site.
