Defending champions David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig are not competing in this week’s Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite event, but the golden cowbells may still go back to Sweden as the country will be represented in Sunday’s men’s gold medal match in the Swiss Alps.

The reigning U22 European champions, Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson continued to win for a fourth-straight day in Gstaad and are set to face Qatari Olympic medalists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan in the event’s gold medal match, which is scheduled for 15:00 local time (13:00 GMT). Two hours earlier, Brazilians André Loyola and George Wanderley and Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot will play for bronze.

• Watch Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite live on VBTV

On Sunday, the Swedish will try to crown what’s already an extraordinary campaign in Gstaad with their first gold in a Beach Pro Tour Elite event. The 20-year-old Hölting Nilsson and the 19-year-old Andersson started their campaign in the event on Wednesday’s qualifier and won six of their seven matches in the tournament to get to the final.

On Saturday, they got the better of the two teams that represented Brazil at last year’s Paris Olympics, sweeping (21-16, 21-19) Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci in the quarterfinals and beating André and George also in two sets (21-15, 21-18) in the semifinals.

“We definitely didn’t expect to make it this far here in Gstaad this week,” Andersson said. “Last week we were playing in Poland (at the Warmia Mazury Challenge) and we weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to play here because we were on the reserve list. This is very unexpected and very fun.”

Competing on the Beach Pro Tour since 2024, the Swedish have already won five medals – gold at the Rakvere Futures, the Chennai Challenge and the Nuvali Challenge in 2024 and the Malmö Futures in 2025 and bronze in the Brno Futures in 2024.

Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite – Match Schedule & Results

Qataris return to Gstaad final

Their opponents, the 30-year-olds Cherif and Ahmed will try to win their first title in Gstaad after taking silver back in 2021. This week, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists are playing in just their third tournament in the season, and they won gold in the Xiamen Challenge in May.

On Saturday, the two, who have four victories in five matches in Gstaad, overcame two Dutch teams to make it to the final in the Swiss Alps. First, in the quarterfinals, the Asians downed fellow Olympic medalist Alexander Brouwer and partner Steven van de Velde in the tie-breaker (22-20, 21-23, 15-13). Then, in the semifinals, they swept (21-16, 21-18) Boermans and de Groot, the team that topped them in the Gstaad final back in 2021.

“I think our mindset helped us a lot today,” Cherif said after their semifinal victory. “We knew that today was a day to win or to die, so we gave everything we had in every play, but also tried to enjoy it because we hadn’t been in the final here in Gstaad at this beautiful stadium in a while. But everyone wants the golden cowbells, and the job is not finished, so we need to keep the focus for the final.”

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
VBTV
Beach Volleyball World Facebook
Beach Volleyball World X
Beach Volleyball World Instagram
Beach Volleyball World YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter