Åhman and Hellvig take gold at the Finals in Doha
Beach Pro Tour
The last event of the 2023 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour calendar, The Finals, held in Doha, Qatar, reflected a scene that repeated throughout the entire season on Saturday, at the conclusion of the event, with Europe having more teams on the podium than any other continent.
Led by two-time European champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, who took the title in the men’s event, two other duos from the continent also took medals home from Qatar – Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, who fell to the Swedes in the men’s gold medal match, and Germans Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann, who took silver among the women.
Åhman and Hellvig ended their most prolific season to date, in which they not only won their second-straight European title but also took gold in three Elite16 events, with another big win, prevailing among the top ten men’s duos of the season in Doha.
The Swedes were dominant in the gold medal match, beating Mol and Sørum in two sets (21-16, 21-17) to secure the title.
David Åhman“It’s unbelievable, we fought so hard for it. We had played Norway in pool play and they crushed us, so it feels good to beat them now and take the title. They’re an incredible team, we knew we had to play at our best to even have a chance.”
Beach Pro Tour Finals champion
Five other European teams appeared in the event, with Czechia’s Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner and Italy’s Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava ranking fifth, Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler and Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak finishing seventh and Italy’s Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri getting ninth.
In the women’s event, Müller and Tillmann had a brilliant campaign, advancing all the way to the gold medal match, but ended up falling to Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss in two sets (21-17, 21-14) and settling for silver.
Kirk Pitman“I am very happy and proud of their performance in the last event of the season against the best teams in the world. It’s great reward for all the hard work they put it this year.”
German National Team head coach
Also representing Europe in Doha were Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova and the Netherlands’ Katja Stam/Raisa Schoon, who were seventh, besides Switzerland’s Nina Brunner/Tanja Hüberli, who couldn’t play due to an injury and ranked ninth.
The Finals concluded the 2023 season of the Beach Pro Tour. The calendar for the 2024 season should be announced over the next few weeks.