An all-Aussie showdown in the final of the Men’s Asian Beach Volleyball Championships saw SASI supported athletes Zach Schubert and Thomas Hodges claim the gold medal, while Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett secured silver.

Held in Pingtan, China, Zach and Thomas defeated the 2022 Commonwealth Games Champions in the gold medal match 2:0 (21-17, 21-18), with both teams gaining valuable world ranking points that contribute to qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Zach said he was thrilled to win his first Asian Championship title, and enjoyed the challenge of facing off with his Aussie teammates.

“We had a great game against the other Aussie team, it’s always really fun whenever we play against them because we know each other so well, so it’s always a great challenge on both sides of the court trying to work out what each other is going to do,” Schubert said.

“It was a really exciting game and we absolutely loved the challenge.

“We’ve won some Asian Tour events before but never the Asian Championships, so it’s the first for both of us and we’re really happy about that,” he said.

Thomas said the team have been finding their groove during the international tour, having also won the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Challenge in Jurmala in the lead up to the event.

“It was a massive week and we just couldn’t think too far ahead; I can’t believe we made it this far to be honest,” Hodges said.

“I think we’ve been playing our volleyball one point at a time, one game at a time and having a lot of patience and belief in our volleyball and it’s really paid off.

“It’s fantastic and really exciting to get two tournament wins in a row.”

SASI is proud to support the Volleyball Australia Beach Volleyball National Training Centre, located at SASI’s training facilities.