The dust has settled on an eventful day five of WCBU and we have some of our finalists. The Men’s division played out some entertaining quarter and semi finals, while the rest of the tournament sees a raft of final four action, as well as the conclusion of all the Masters divisions. So let’s recap what happened:

Mixed

With an early start to the day, the mixed division played out the entire 9am round of games with some tasty pre-quarters. While most played out to seed, the undoubted result of the round was India stunning hosts France 10-8 on the show pitch to make history and guarantee their highest ever finish. Elsewhere, Russia brushed past Spain on universe point and Great Britain saw off a hard fought challenge from Italy.

Later in the day, the semis were decided as Germany smashed Great Britain 13-6, USA breezed through Russia 13-9, Philippines saw off any Indian threat 11-7 and Canada toppled Portugal 10-7 in fairly easy victories for all the winners.

Tomorrow we see: Germany vs USA and Philippines vs Canada.

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Men’s

The Men’s division went all the day to the semis today, giving a day’s rest to the two finalists. In the morning quarters, the biggest game was Russia once again going to universe against France, however this time they were on the losing end in a 9-10 loss. Meanwhile the plucky Spain were outdone by the even pluckier Philippines 12-8.

The semis may look to have been routine victories on paper as USA beat France 13-6 and GB won against Philippines in front of huge crowds, however the British really had to pull out all the stops to make the final as they worked hard on D and made some amazing plays to earn their medal.

Saturday’s Final: USA vs Great Britain.

Women

The Women’s division followed a similar suit to Mixed, starting with pre-quarters. The closest game of the round was Spain winning on universe against Czech Republic 9-8, while Switzerland beat Latvia 8-6. Elsewhere, Denmark put in a big performance to knock out Germany.

The quarters saw no close ties as USA, Canada, GB and Russia all managed comfortable wins. Closest game was Denmark, who lost out 6-10 to the Russians.

Semi-final match ups: USA vs Canada and Great Britain vs Russia.

Mixed Masters

The Mixed Masters pool finally ended, and Spain missed out on the top four on a 9-10 loss to Germany. The result separated the two teams via the head-to-head rules, after they both ended with eight wins, three losses. USA beat Germany 13-9 in their semi, and France lost to Canada 8-11. This set up a repeat of the 2015 final, tomorrow at 4pm French time on fanseat.com. USA came out top last time, can they do so again? France play Germany for bronze.

Men’s Masters

The Men’s Masters semi-finals featured a big upset. Seventh seed Spain knocked out second seed Great Britain in the quarters, winning 12-11. All the other games went to seed. USA then beat Canada (13-6) and France beat Spain 12-11. This sets up a final between reigning champions USA and hosts France, at 6:30pm French time. Canada vs Spain will be the bronze medal match.

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Women’s Masters

The Women’s Masters pool finished with third and fourth place finishers Great Britain and Australia on eight wins and three losses, two wins ahead of the nearest rivals. Neither could pull off an upset though, as USA and Canada destroy their opponents, setting up another repeat final from WCBU 2015. Since the Women’s Masters division was only introduced in that year, we’ve never actually seen another final on beach. It’s streamed at 5:20pm French time. GBR play Australia for third, with GBR having already beaten Australia earlier this tournament.

Men’s Grandmasters

The pool finally finished, with the USA unbeaten. Great Britain took second with two losses. Finland also only had two losses, but one of those was 7-13 to GB in their final game today, so they go into third. Canada beat France 13-4 in the unofficial game for fourth place. This sets up USA vs Canada, and GB vs Finland as our semis. They’ll take place at 10:10am, with the final between not long after at 3pm.