Vienna, Austria, August 5, 2018 – Undefeated for the last 19 matches, Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sørum topped the podium of the last three tournaments they played at – the Gstaad Major, the European Championships and the A1 Vienna Major presented by Swatch, which they won this Sunday at the Danube Island.
Quick links - Beach volleyball: If teams around the world are not finding any answer for the Norwegians’ game over the last week, neither are they. The key to keep winning games, they say, is just enjoying every second in the court.
“We just have a lot of fun playing volleyball and off the court,” Sørum said. “We just enjoy this sport so much and maybe that's the difference. In the final, our side out was really good and Anders had some really nice blocks that helped us. We also served well and that was important.”
The Norwegians’ form was put on test at the Vienna Major as the Europeans needed to play the gold medal match less than two hours after the won their semifinal game. But with the momentum leaning towards them, not even the extreme physical demands were enough to stop them.
“We are playing super well,” Mol added. “In the final we were really tired because we had just a couple of hours after the semifinal to eat and rest and we had to start it over. We're super happy that we won another one.”
Polish Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl were second in Vienna, where they played in a gold medal match together. It was also the first final appearance for the 23-year-old Bryl, a U-19 and U-21 world champion.
“It was the best tournament of my life,” he commented. “I’m very proud of myself, my partner and our staff. We’ve been working together for the last two years and month after month we became a better team. And we just played in our first final, so I couldn’t be happier.”
Qatari's Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan also were in festive mood as they celebrated their first podium placement in a five-star event since they united forces at the start of the season.
"It was a tough match with the Dutch," Cherif said. "They're a really good team but we played with our hearts. We're very satisfied with our result and now we just need some rest before we head to our next tournaments."