Mol and Sørum are the new world champions
News
A European team stepped at the top of the podium of the Beach Volleyball World Championship for a third-straight time as Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum were the winners of the tournament held in Rome over the last ten days. Germans Cinja Tillmann and Svenja Müller took bronze among the women.
The winners of the last four editions of the EuroBeachVolley, Mol and Sørum have now won virtually every major international tournament they could. Besides the four continental titles, the Beach Volley Vikings are also the reigning Olympic champions and have two victories at the FIVB World Tour Finals.
In Rome, the Norwegians had a perfect campaign, winning all of their eight matches at the iconic Foro Italico. On Sunday, the last day of the tournament, the two were dominant against Vitor Felipe and Renato Lima, beating the Brazilians in two sets (21-15, 21-16). Another team from the South American country, the one of Andre Loyola and George Wanderley, finished third and took bronze.
Christian Sørum“We’ve been working hard for so many years, it’s been a dream. Everything that’s happened, it’s been really special, but winning the World Championship is even more so because this tournament is the reason I started to play and fell in love with the sport. We couldn’t make it in 2019, but we did this time and now we have all the titles. There’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes, but we also have so much fun on the court, so it doesn’t feel so hard. It feels like we’re living a dream.”
World Champion
The Norwegians are now the fifth European team to become world champions and the first from their country. They join Germans Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann (2009), Dutch Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen (2013), Germans Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst (2017) and Russians Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Viacheslav Krasilnikov (2019).
The women’s tournament had an all-European bronze medal match, which unfortunately didn’t come to an end after Swiss Olympic medallist Joana Heidrich sustained a shoulder injury and was forced to leave the court with partner Anouk Vergé-Dépré. With that, Tillmann and Müller were awarded the bronze medals.
Brazilians Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patricia Ramos claimed gold after they defeated Canadians Brandie Wilkerson and Sophie Bukovec in the women’s final.
Europe had 41 teams in action in Rome over the last ten days, with those duos representing 13 different countries in the continent - Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.
With the results obtained in Rome, the continent has now reached the mark of 20 medals won in 13 editions of the tournament - five gold, seven silver and eight bronze.