The Australian pair of Jed Walker and Oliver Merritt is ready for a gruelling week, looking to take the golden prize at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games in men’s beach volleyball, which officially started on Monday, 21 July at Sportpark Duisburg.
While not a full-time pairing, the tournament’s fourth seeds are accustomed to each other’s styles having trained in Adelaide for six months last year, before playing on their National Tour together.
More recently, they’ve both been in separate, competitive duos. Walker, 21, and his other partner are ranked 156th in the world, while Merritt’s duo sits just outside the top 100.
“I’ve been playing with someone else, he’s been playing with someone else for some tournaments but we’ve, you know, rekindled an old love for this event,” said the 24-year-old Merritt.
That love showed on the sand in their opening match, as the two were in constant positive communication, performing so many double-touch handshakes it was hard to keep count, on their way to defeating Oman 2-1. The Australian women’s team and its entourage were also vocal in the crowd, waving national flags.
Talking of their friendship, Walker, who’s pursuing a Bachelor of Communications at Curtin University in Perth, said any success on the sand starts with a bond off it.
“It’s really important. I think for different people, it changes, but for me, it’s really, really important to get along well. When you’re travelling and you’re rooming together, you’re spending a lot of time together, so it helps if it’s one of your best mates.”
The pair ventured to the FISU Games, their first time playing in Europe, on a long-haul journey, taking two flights totalling 20 hours to get here.
Merritt, a computer science student at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said, “We’re slowly getting rid of the jet lag. Every night we seem to be sleeping a little bit better, which is good. We’ve only been in Europe for three days.”
The men’s beach volleyball field is tough, and the Aussies don’t know what to expect, only that they’ll need to fight for every point.
“We don’t have a heap of information on the other teams in the event,” Merritt said. “But from what we’ve seen, results of other teams in tournaments that we’ve played in, other tournaments that we’ve had our teammates play, it’s a bloody strong tournament.”
Merritt stresses his point.
“Every single game is going to be tough. Coming out of the pool, the round of 16 is going to be a dog fight. The quarterfinal is going to be a dogfight. There’s no easy games out here.”
The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games take place from 16-27 July. Watch all the competitions live on fisu.tv. Click on the link to find the full schedule.
Written by Coby Moratti, FISU Young Reporter, New Zealand
The Young Reporters Programme exemplifies FISU’s commitment to more than sports competitions. At every FISU World University Games, a group of talented aspiring sports journalists are chosen to cover the competition.
We warmly thank FISU Official Partner Qiaodan Ltd. which provides remarkable uniforms to FISU Family and International Technical Officials since 2015. Qiaodan is a valuable partner for FISU as it continued to provide its support during the postponement of events due to the global pandemic, and recently extended the relationship with FISU up to and including 2025.