Olympic bronze medalists win gold in Hamburg
Beach Pro Tour
Paris Olympic bronze medalists Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland and Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway led European teams to a dominant performance at this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Hamburg Elite16, which resulted in five of the six medals in play staying in the continent.
With teams from Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands making it to the podium at the Am Rothenbaum Stadium, the continent earned gold and silver among the women and took all three medals on the men’s side.
In the women’s final, Paris medalists Brunner and Hüberli were slightly better than recently-crowned European champions Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann of Germany to produce a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 18-16) victory in their opponents’ home sand.
It was just the second international victory for the Swiss, who have been partners since 2016 and only got to celebrate their first gold medals on the Beach Pro Tour four months ago, in Tepic, Mexico.
Nina Brunner“That Tepic victory was huge, it feels like we needed it. We waited a long time for it and had to fight really hard for it. After that, it feels like we have more stability and confidence in tight matches. We’re super happy that we managed to get another win here in Hamburg.”
Swiss Beach Volleyball Player
Europe was one win away from taking all three medals on the women’s side too, but EuroBeachVolley silver medalists Marta Menegatti and Valentina Gottardi of Italy were upset by Brazilians Thamela Coradello and Victoria Lopes and lost in two sets (21-19, 21-19), finishing fourth.
In the men’s final, Mol and Sørum were dominant against Spanish Pablo Herrera, who played the last match in his international career, and Adrián Gavira to triumph in straight sets (21-15, 21-11) and celebrate their second title in the season, following a victory in Vienna in July.
In Hamburg, the Beach Volley Vikings stepped at the top of the podium in an international event for the 24th time, which made of them the second most successful team in men’s beach volleyball history, only behind Brazilians Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego, who have 34 titles – they passed Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, who had 23 victories.
Anders Mol“That means we still have at least ten more victories to go get (laughs). It’s really unbelievable. Just being on the same range of guys like Rogers, Dalhausser, Emanuel and Ricardo is something we could never even hope for. Seeing the Norwegian flag together with Brazil and the USA when it comes to beach volleyball is even a little bit weird, but we’re not done yet, we want to keep going.”
Norwegian Beach Volleyball Player
Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot overcame Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava in the two-set (21-18, 21-13) bronze medal match in Hamburg and completed the all-European podium.
The event in Hamburg also marked the international retirement of German legend Laura Ludwig, who finished fifth with partner Louisa Lippmann. A Rio 2016 Olympic champion and a five-time Olympian, she will play professionally for the last time next weekend, in the German Championship.