Mol and Sørum get two wins
Two other teams that competed in Paris secured the first two spots in the elimination rounds in Pool C. Paris bronze medalists and Tokyo Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum of Norway needed the tie-breaker (19-21, 21-19, 15-8) to handle the English Bello twins Javier and Joaquin and later beat Ukrainians Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik in two sets (21-12, 21-17).
Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci did the same in the opposite order, overcoming Popov and Reznik in two sets (21-14, 21-16) in their debut and then prevailing over the Bellos in three (21-23, 21-17, 15-12). Norwegians and Brazilians will play on Friday, with the winners advancing directly to the quarterfinals.
In Pool A, Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen are the only team qualified. They rallied to secure a 2-1 (21-15, 32-34, 16-14) victory over reigning European champions Martins Plavins and Kristians Fokerots of Latvia in their first match and were awarded another victory when Brazilians André Loyola and George Wanderley had to abandon their duel because of an injury.
