Gstaad, Switzerland, July 14, 2018 - Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway will be seeking to snap a 20-season victory drought for their country on the FIVB World Tour as the young Scandinavians advanced to the gold medal match at the US$600,000 Gstaad Major here Sunday with a three-set win over Taylor Crabb/Jake Gibb of the United States.
Seeded 15th in the second of four Beach Major Series events on the 2017-2018 FIVB World Tour calendar, the 21-year old Mol and 22-year old Sorum scored a 2-1 (17-21, 23-21, 16-14) win in 52 minutes over 21st-seeded Crabb and Gibb in the first of two semi-final matches Saturday.
Norway's Christian Sorum (right) with a Mikasa reception as partner Anders Mol follows the action in the semi-final win over USA.
In the second semi-final, sixth-seeded Adrian Gavira/Pablo Herrera of Spain advanced to their ninth FIVB gold medal match in 100 World Tour appearances by defeating 12th-seeded Daniele Lupo/Paolo Nicolai of Italy 2-0 (30-28, 21-18) in 47 minutes. It was the 15th meeting on the FIVB World Tour between the two teams with the Spaniards leading 8-7 with three-straight wins.
The last gold medal won by Norway on the World Tour was in 1998 when Vegard Hoidalen/Jorre Kjemperud defeated Brazilians Guilherme Marquez/Para Ferreira in Berlin on July 5, 1998 in the 77th FIVB-sanctioned men’s event. The Gstaad Major is the 400th men’s event in the history of the 32-season tour that started in February 1987 in Rio de Janeiro.
Since the 1998 Berlin finale, Norway has appeared in two men’s gold medal matches with the second being earlier this season when Mol and Sorum dropped a two-set title match to Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola on the Brazilians “home” sand May 20 in Itapema.
The first Norwegian team to reach a FIVB men’s gold medal match after the 1998 victory was Tarjei Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr as the pair was defeated in two sets by Germany’s David Klemperer/Eric Koreng on July 4, 2010 in Stavanger, Norway.