Vienna, Austria, August 5, 2018 - Anders Mol and Christian Mol extended their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour winning streak to 12-stright matches as the young Norwegians secured their second Beach Majors Series gold medal this year by defeating Michal Bryl/Grzegorz Fijalek of Poland to top the podium here on Sunday at the $600,000 A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch.
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Seeded third in the competition, the 21-year-old Mol and 22-year-old Sorum posted a 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) win in 38 minutes over the 14th-seeded Bryl and Fijalek to capture the $40,000 first-place prize. The win also validated the Norwegians’ gold medal three weeks ago at the Beach Major Series in Gstaad, Switzerland where Mol and Sorum won the first six matches in their streak.
"Our side out was really good and Anders had some really nice blocks that helped us," said Sorum after the title match that was staged before the Vienna Major bronze medal podium placer. "We also served well and that was important. We are just having a lot of fun every time we play."
The 23-year old Bryl and 31-year old Fijalek, who dropped their first match in pool play on Thursday before rebounding with five-straight wins, split $32,000 for their first podium placement together on the FIVB World Tour in 16 events. The Polish pair had won their previous two meetings with Mol and Sorum at an event last year in Moscow and earlier this season in the United States at Fort Lauderdale.
Mol and Sorum, who have a personal 19-match winning streak after winning seven contests two weeks ago at the European championships in the Netherlands, were playing in their 15th FIVB event and are the first Norwegian team to win two World Tour gold medals in the same season since 1997 when Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide topped podiums in Portugal and the Carney Islands.
To reach the finals at the Vienna Major, which is the 405th FIVB World Tour men’s event since the start of the international circuit in 1987, Mole and Sorum defeated fifth-seeded Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen of the Netherlands 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) in 42 minutes while Bryl/Fijalek posted a 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) semifinal victory in 42 minutes over 24th-seeded qualifiers Cherif Samba/Ahmed Tijan of Qatar.
In the bronze medal contest, Cherif and Ahmed won their seventh of eight matches at the Vienna Major by out-lasting Brouwer and Meeuwsen 2-1 (25-23, 17-21, 15-12) in 57 minutes. The Qatar pair split $20,000 for placing third while Rio 2016 silver medal winners Brouwer and Meeuwsen shared $16,000 for finishing fourth.
