Norway had a strong day at the conclusion of pool play in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour João Pessoa Elite16 on Friday and saw their two teams entered in the event finish first in their pools and advance directly to the quarterfinals.

Besides Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen, also topped their pools Olympic champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden and Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar. Eight other duos remain alive but must go through the Round of 12.

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Fresh from winning their second Olympic medal, bronze in Paris 2024, Mol and Sørum, who took gold in Tokyo three years ago, faced another team that competed in the French capital in July and August in their pool final, beating Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci 2-0 (21-19, 21-19) to finish first in Pool C.

Guaranteed in the quarterfinals, the Beach Volley Vikings now wait for the Round of 12 duel between Latvia’s Martins Plavins/Kristians Fokerots and Czechia’s Jakub Sepka/Jiri Sedlak to know their next opponents.

Their compatriots Hendrik Mol and Berntsen also had a strong finish to their pool play campaign, overcoming Portuguese João Pedrosa and Hugo Campos in the tie-breaker (21-18, 21-23, 15-12) to be the top team in Pool A.

Their quarterfinal opponents will be either Evandro and Arthur or the Capogrosso brothers Nicolas and Tomas.

Beach Pro Tour João Pessoa Elite16 – Match Schedule & Results

Olympic champions continue perfect

The other two pool winners in João Pessoa had to play twice on Friday and Åhman and Hellvig kept their record perfect in Pool B, defeating Sepka and Sedlak 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) and Brazilians Adrielson dos Santos and Arthur Mariano also in straight sets (21-18, 21-17).

The winners of the Round of 12 duel between Brazil’s Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes/Vitor Felipe and Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Eduard Reznik will face the Olympic champions in the quarterfinals.

The winners of Pool D, Cherif and Ahmed had a day of ups and downs, as they started it sweeping (21-16, 21-19) Guto and Vitor, but later fell to the Capogrossos in three sets (19-21, 25-23, 15-8). In the quarterfinals, they can face Pedrosa and Campos or Adrielson and Arthur.

Saturday’s schedule in João Pessoa will include the Round of 12 and the quarterfinals. The semifinals and medal matches will bring the tournament to an end on Sunday.

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