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Beach Volleyball News
European beach volleyball teams gave a sign of strength less than two weeks before the start of the Paris Games as duos from the continent appeared in the men’s and women’s finals of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite16, winning four of the six medals in play in the last event before the Olympics.
With Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and Germany’s Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann topping the men’s and women’s podiums and Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and Switzerland’s Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré appearing in second place, the continent made the double on both genders.
The men’s final had two very different sets, with Mol and Sørum struggling to win the first one and cruising on the second to produce their 2-0 (25-23, 21-12) victory over Bryl and Łosiak.
Anders Mol“We’ll definitely feed from this victory here in Vienna, it was just what we needed. We have now found more confidence in our game. We haven’t had that many tournaments this year, so this is priceless. It was great that we got to play so many matches and to come all the way to the final.”
Europe had the opportunity to stage a full medal sweep on the men’s side, but Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler fell to Chileans Marco and Esteban Grimalt 2-0 (21-18, 21-16) in the bronze medal match and had to settle for fourth.
The women’s final, held on Saturday, also reunited two European duos and had Müller and Tillmann celebrating their first title of the season with a two-set (21-14, 21-18) victory over Swiss Olympic medalists Mäder and Vergé-Dépré.
The victory happened on the day of Tillmann’s 33rd birthday and boosted the Germans’ confidence ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Cinja Tillmann“I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. We tried to communicate as much as possible and it worked. The Swiss served and blocked really well, but I think that today we played perhaps our best match in the season and that's exciting, considering this is the last tournament before the Olympics.”
Americans Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft defeated Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti to take bronze in Vienna.
The Beach Pro Tour will have a five-week break for the Paris Olympics. As many as 26 European teams (13 in each gender) will represent the continent at the Games, which will be held from July 27-August 10 at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in the French capital.