Medal contenders for the upcoming Paris Olympics, USA’s Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss and Sweden’s David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig secured an important victory just two months before the start of the event, taking gold at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Espinho Elite16 on Sunday.

The tournament held at the Praia da Baía was the fourth of seven Elite16 events set to happen before the start of the Games and had one of the strongest fields of the season, with almost all of the top teams of international beach volleyball making the trip to Portugal.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Espinho Elite16 matches on demand on VBTV

Kloth, 27, and Nuss, 26, got to celebrate their sixth gold on the Beach Pro Tour and their first in 2024 after taking silver earlier this month in Brasília with a dramatic 2-1 (17-21, 28-26, 15-10) victory over Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli in a match in which they had to avoid six match points from their opponents in the second set before triumphing in the tie-breaker.

“This is absolutely unreal,” Nuss told Volleyball World. “It was such a battle. I think we go to three every single time against that Swiss team, they’re phenomenal athletes. It was pretty fun to just battle in this wind. The stadium was packed for the finals and for us, athletes, it means a lot to play in this atmosphere.”

Espinho Elite16 – Final Results

Dutch Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam took the last spot on the podium after triumphing over Spanish Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) in the bronze medal match. The two got to celebrate their second medal in the season after taking silver in Tepic back in April.

Åhman and Hellvig win two in a row

The men’s event had reigning European champions Åhman and Hellvig at the top of the podium after the 22-year-olds mastered the windy conditions in Espinho and dominated Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler to a 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) win in the gold medal match.

Currently sitting at the top of the FIVB World Rankings, the Swedish took gold in a Beach Pro Tour event for the eighth time in three seasons and got to celebrate back-to-back victories as they had triumphed in their last international appearance, in Tepic, in April. The two have a nearly perfect season in 2024, having taken silver at the season-opener Doha Elite16 and holding a 17-2 win record in three tournaments played so far.

“It feels great to win gold again,” Hellvig reacted. “We lost a match in pool play, but got to prevail in some really tough matches during the event. I’m super happy that we made it.”

Brazilians Andre Loyola and George Wanderley earned their fourth-overall and third-straight medal in the season by finishing third, following a 2-0 (21-15, 30-28) triumph over Dutch Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers in the bronze medal match. The two were the winners of the Saquarema Challenge, in March, and took silver and bronze in the last two Elite16s, in Tepic and Brasília, respectively.

From Espinho, the Beach Pro Tour heads to the Polish city of Stare Jablonki, which will host the second-to-last event in the Olympic qualification period, from May 30-June 2. The Challenge event will mark the return of international beach volleyball to the city for the first time since 2014.

The last event of the Olympic qualification period will be held in Ostrava, Czechia, from June 5-9, and will be an Elite16 tournament.

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