Beach Volleyfest's elite to be crowned

Beach Volleyfest’s elite to be crowned

Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng of the United States with their gold medals on centre court. Photos: PETER MARSHALL

THE Great Ocean Road Beach Volleyfest is in full swing with the best beach volleyball talent still to take centre stage.

The first chapter of the Volleyfest, the Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge, concluded on Sunday with Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (United States) and Daniele Lupo and Enrico Rossi (Italy) securing the gold medals in the women and men’s bracket.

Now, just 16 teams, equally divided between men and women, are chasing down the goal of becoming Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 champions, with quarterfinals and semi-finals set to take place today (Friday, December 2) in front of an eager Surf Coast crowd, before medal matches are conducted tomorrow on Saturday.

Crowd numbers are expected to rise for the Elite 16 tournaments featuring Olympic-level talent going toe-to-toe.

Epic entertainment will accompany the Elite 16 action over the next two days with acts such as Kyle Lionheart (Friday 4.40-7pm), The Soul Movers (Friday 7.40-10pm), Steph Strings (Saturday 3.30-5pm) and Taylor Henderson (Saturday 7.30-10pm) performing during the knockout phase of the Elite 16 action.

Alongside with the World Tour and starting the action each morning on Friday and Saturday, Volleyball Australia will bring the first stop of the 2022/2023 Australian Beach Volleyball Tour to the Great Ocean Road Beach Volleyfest.

The centre court filling up for the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Torquay Challenge women’s final between USA and China.

Teams from across the nation will battle it out in the Australian Elite and Challenger competitions with the event beginning today on Torquay beach and continuing tomorrow (Saturday, December 3).

Finals will then take over the Beach Volleyfest event site, and the semi-finals and medal matches will be showcased on the main stage on Sunday, December 4.

Finals and medal match tickets are in high demand as teams decide the podiums. Visitors can pay $10 for a ground pass, but access to the medal matches will cost $35 and finals will cost $25.

To purchase tickets to the final two days of the World Tour in Torquay and the accompanying Volleyball Australia tournament, head to beachvolleyfest.com.au/event-info/tickets