Jacob Holting Nilsson & Elmer Andersson did it again! The week after their historic success at the Chennai Challenge, when they started from the qualifiers, made it to their first-ever Challenge-level main draw and all the way to the top of the podium after eight wins in a row, the Swedish teenagers added another eight to their winning streak and once again travelled the whole journey from the qualifiers to the gold medal at the Nuvali Challenge in the Philippines this week. Overall, it was their fourth podium on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.

• Watch the Nuvali Challenge on VBTV.

Another team that started their Nuvali campaign from the qualifications, Germany’s Paul Henning & Lui Wust, also reached the final and earned silver, the first Beach Pro Tour medal for the recently formed partnership.

The tournament’s top seeds, England’s Joaquin Bello & Javier Bello, settled for bronze, their second back-to-back Beach Pro Tour medal, after the Rio de Janeiro Elite16 gold from three weeks ago, and overall fifth podium on the Tour.

Two teams emerging from the qualifiers went face to face in Sunday’s gold medal showdown in Nuvali. Under the rain, 10^th-seeded Holting Nilsson & Andersson got the job done in straight sets to celebrate a 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) shutout of 16^th-seeded Henning & Wust. 18-year-old Andersson contributed 17 points to the victory, including two aces and one kill block, while his 19-year-old teammate added another 13, including four blocks. 22-year-old Wust led the German duo with 15 points, while the most experienced of them all, 27-year-old Henning, added another 11.

“It was a tough journey, but we took it one game at a time, one point at a time. Every point we tried to do better than the last one, so that was the key,” Holting Nilsson told Volleyball World after the final.

“It feels amazing! We really didn’t expect it. The first time we thought it was easier playing without pressure, but when we already won one, we really thought it would be more challenging the next time, and it was! But yes, a really nice feeling! Now I have a lot of school work to do...” Andersson added.

The two top-seeded teams in the main draw bracket ended up contesting the bronze medals in the third place match, played before the final. Bello & Bello outplayed second-seeded Philipp Waller & Timo Hammarberg of Austria in a 2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 15-12) three-setter, capitalizing mostly on their serving, which brought them five aces, and the opponents’ abundant unforced errors. Javier Bello and Hammarberg were the leading scorers of the match with 22 points each. Joaquin Bello added another 13 to his team’s victory, while Waller finished with 16 on the other side of the net.

Holting Nilsson & Andersson came back from a set down to put together a 2-1 (16-21, 21-15, 15-13) upset of Waller & Hammarberg in the first semifinal on Sunday morning. With eight kill blocks in the match towards his 21-point tally, Holting Nilsson completely owned the net, while Andersson led the team in attack to finish with 23 points. Hammarberg was the top scorer of the game with 33 points, including three blocks.

Surviving an overtime second set, Henning & Wust celebrated a tight 2-0 (21-18, 23-21) victory over Bello & Bello in the other semifinal. Henning registered two aces and shared the top scorer honours of the match with Javier Bello on 20 points each.

VW Beach Pro Tour Nuvali Challenge: all results

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