New Zealand’s Thomas Reid & John McManaway win Pirae Tahiti Futures gold with FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support
• Also with Volleyball Empowerment assistance, Ukraine’s Ivan Datsiuk & Ivan Likhatskyi medal at their Beach Pro Tour debut
• Japan’s Takumi Takahashi & Jumpei Ikeda take the silver in French Polynesia
FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries Thomas Reid & John McManaway of New Zealand topped the podium at last week’s men’s Futures event in Pirae Tahiti to snatch their first-ever gold on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour. Japan’s Takumi Takahashi & Jumpei Ikeda took the silver in French Polynesia, while Ukraine’s Ivan Datsiuk & Ivan Likhatskyi, also with support from Volleyball Empowerment, landed the bronze in their debut on the Tour.
The men’s Pirae Tahiti Futures podium (Photo credits: Tahiti World Beach Pro Tour)
New Zealand’s beach volleyball has so far been granted a total of CHF 252,000 of Volleyball Empowerment coach support, in addition to CHF 28,000 worth of beach volleyball equipment. Jason Lochhead has been coaching the country’s national teams since 2021.
Thomas Reid & John McManaway lived up to their top seeding in the Pirae Tahiti Futures and triumphed on top of the podium for the first time in their careers. However, it wasn’t a smooth ride all the way through for the New Zealanders. In the Pool A winners’ match, they suffered a setback at the hands of Norway’s Havard Solheim & Oscar Majak Gundersen after a three-set battle, 2-1 (21-19, 14-21, 16-14), so they had to take the long route to the medals, through the eighth-final round.
28-year-old Reid and 22-year-old McManaway dropped no more sets on the way to the gold. Their impeccable four-game winning streak was crowned by a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) victory over second-seeded Takumi Takahashi & Jumpei Ikeda in the final showdown (pictured in the main photo; credits: Tahiti World Beach Pro Tour). This maiden gold was the fourth overall Beach Pro Tour medal for the duo from New Zealand. Previously, they had collected two silvers in 2023 and a Coolangatta Futures bronze last month as a team.
Ikeda repeated his silver result from last year’s Futures in Tahiti, but this year’s podium was the first for Ikeda & Takahashi as a pair. To secure this success, the Japanese team mastered a 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) sweep of their semi-final against Solheim & Majak.
23-year-old Ivan Datsiuk and 25-year-old Ivan Likhatskyi of Ukraine, whose Federation has been receiving Volleyball Empowerment support based on Memorandums of Understanding, for international events since 2022, reached the Pirae Tahiti semi-finals without dropping a single set. After a 2-0 (21-9, 21-17) semifinal defeat at the hands of Reid & McManaway, the pair, seeded 10th in the main draw, made sure that their debut was a truly memorable one and bounced back with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) victory over the Norwegian duo in the third-place match.
16 men’s teams representing nine different countries took part in the Pirae Tahiti Futures. Next on the Beach Pro Tour programme is the women’s Futures tournament in Pirae Tahiti, taking place from 9 to 12 April.
Pirae Tahiti Futures - men: results and standings