Vikings looking forward to new experiences at #BeachNationsCup
News
Despite their still young ages, there isn’t a lot out there in terms of new experiences available for Anders Mol and Christian Sørum when it comes to playing at (and winning) beach volleyball tournaments. This week, however, the Norwegians will be faced with something completely new at the A1 CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup in Vienna.
The reigning Olympic and world champions and four-time defending #EuroBeachVolley winners are one of the attractions of the inaugural edition of the tournament, which will take place between Tuesday and Sunday at the Heumarkt, at the heart of the Austrian capital.
The unprecedented country vs. country format will bring a lot of excitement for the 32 teams that will be competing in Vienna this week and the possibilities of experiencing something new and potentially winning one of the rare titles they still don’t have are some of the things that will drive the Vikings though the week.
Christian Sørum“It’s a new tournament and a title we don’t have yet, so it would be cool to win the Beach Nations Cup. Playing is Vienna is always very fun and special for us and we’ll do our best to win every match we play. We’re excited to see how it goes and hopefully we can add another title to our list.”
Norwegian Beach Volleyball Player
The format of the Beach Nations Cup, which brings together two duos of each country to form a single team, is one of the things that gets Mol and Sørum more excited about the tournament in Vienna.
The two share each and every step of their careers, from training sessions and traveling around the world to celebrating victories, with Hendrik Mol (Anders’ brother) and Mathias Berntsen (their cousin) but never before had the opportunity to join forces with them and represent Norway as a single unit.
Anders Mol“We’re really close friends with Hendrik and Mathias and we’ve done everything together in our careers. So, being able to play as the Beach Volley Vikings in this event, and not our team and their team separately, will be really cool. I believe we’ll feel a lot more as a team this time because we will depend on each other’s results to move forward in the tournament. It will be a lot of fun playing with them in this new concept.”
Norwegian Beach Volleyball Player
While they prepare for their opening match on Wednesday, against Germans Robin Sowa and Lukas Pfretzschner, the reigning Olympic and world champions also want to keep their record spotless in Vienna.
Besides securing their fourth #EuroBeachVolley titles and establishing a new record in the tournament at the Austrian capital last year, the Vikings have also won a pair of FIVB World Tour events in the city in 2018 and 2019 and triumphed in each of the 18 matches they played there so far.
Anders Mol“We’re very excited to return to Vienna, it’s one of our favorite locations to play. Last year it was a lot of fun playing at the Heumarkt, right in the middle of the city, especially after competing at the Olympics with no fans. The atmosphere was unbelievable and very loud and we can’t wait to meet the best fans in the world again. We haven’t lost a match in Vienna yet and we certainly don’t want it to happen at the Beach Nations Cup.”
Norwegian Beach Volleyball Player
The Beach Pro Cup begins on Tuesday with the first four matches in the women’s tournament – Switzerland vs. Spain, the Netherlands vs. Latvia, Germany vs. Czech Republic and Austria vs. Italy.
All matches of the event will be streamed live on EuroVolley.TV and on CEV's YouTube channel.