Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala exhilarate the home crowd with bronze at U21 World Championship

PUEBLA, Mexico, Octuber 20, 2025.- Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala captured the bronze medal of the 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships in home soil, Puebla.

Home heroes Antonio Lares & Carlos Andres Ayala stumbled in the semifinals for the first time in this tournament, but bounced back to claim the bronze, an important build-up on the fourth place they took at last year’s U19 World Championship in Shangluo, China.

Once again inspired by the fantastic home crowd that filled up the center court stands on this beautiful Sunday in Cholula, 19-year-old Lares & Carlos Andres hammered out an emphatic 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) shutout of last year’s U19 world champions Szymon Pietraszek & Jakub Krzeminski of Poland in the third-place match to secure Mexico’s third podium in the history of the competition, after Josue Gaxiola & Jose Luis Rubio's silver in 2016 and Miguel Sarabia & Raymond Stephens's bronze in 2019. For Lares & Carlos Andres themselves, it was the first world-level medal. They have not made a Beach Pro Tour podium yet, but this season they have collected four continental NORCECA Tour medals so far.

The semifinals of the U21 World Championship took place earlier on Sunday. In an all-Polish duel, 20-year-old Beta & Besarab were merciless for their slightly younger compatriots, 19-year-old Pietraszek & Krzeminski, and mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) sweep. After that, a much anticipated battle between two teams that had not lost a single set at the tournament that far went 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) the way of Auzins & Fokerots against Lares & Carlos Andres.

Gustavs Auzins & Kristians Fokerots of Latvia triumphed with the title. The silver went to Poland’s Szymon Beta & Artem Besarab and it was the first world-level medal for them as a pair.

2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship: all results