Elite16 - Hamburg, GER - 2026

First Beach Pro Tour gold for Ehlers & Wust, for either of them individually too!

Mol & Sorum and Plavins & Fokerots complete the men’s podium at the Hamburg Elite

Published 06:58, 10 Aug 2026

Ehlers/Wüst (GER) vs. Mol, A./Sørum, C. (NOR) - Final 1st Place #118918873

Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist Nils Ehlers of Germany celebrated his first ever Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour gold, but not with his regular partner Clemens Wickler, currently sidelined with a shoulder injury. Teamed up with Lui Wust, Ehlers conquered the Hamburg Elite title at home in Germany on Sunday. It was the first Beach Pro Tour gold for Wust as well. At only their third Tour appearance as a pair, Ehlers & Wust picked up their first Elite and overall second medal, after the bronze at the Shangluo Challenge in July.

Watch the Hamburg Elite on VBTV

Reigning European champions Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions and Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalists, settled for silver. It was their first appearance on the Beach Pro Tour in over three months. The Beachvolley Vikings now enriched the duo’s impressive medal collection from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and the Beach Pro Tour combined to 28 golds, eight silvers and seven bronzes.

At the age of 41, Martins Plavins and his 21-year-old partner Kristians Fokerots of Latvia, who won gold at the Rio de Janeiro Elite the previous week, earned the team’s fourth medal of the 2026 season. With the Hamburg bronze, their Beach Pro Tour showcase now features three gold, one silver and five bronze medals together.

The 2026 Hamburg Elite medalists

After suffering their only loss in the seven matches played in Hamburg – in a Pool C match against Anders Mol & Christian Sorum – 11^th-seeded Ehlers & Wust finished pool runners-up, but then got back on the winning track all the way to the top of the podium. In the semifinals, the German duo came back from a set down against Plavins & Fokerots to celebrate a 2-1 (16-21, 21-19, 15-12) victory.

In the gold medal showdown, they met mighty Mol & Sorum again and delighted the home fans with a sweet 2-0 (22-20, 21-9) revenge. Ehlers owned the net with nine kill blocks and 12 successful spikes towards a match-high 22 points, while Wust added another 15 points, all in swings.

Third-seeded Mol & Sorum reached the final undefeated, on a five-match winning streak crowned with a nail-biting 2-1 (16-21, 24-22, 19-17) comeback against 10^th-seeded Steven van de Velde & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands.

An injury forced the Dutch to withdraw from the third-place game, so the bronze went to fifth-seeded Plavins & Fokerots, who also suffered only one setback throughout the tournament, against the German champions-to-be in the semifinals.