Anders Mol & Christian Sorum are back to number two in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking. The Norwegian standouts regained ground after winning gold at last week’s Vienna Elite16 on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour and climbed back up the chart to a spot in which they had not been since late May.
Beach Pro Tour
Mol & Sorum back up to number two in World Ranking
Published 12:26, 16 Jul 2024
The Beachvolley Vikings were the world’s number one team when medical problems forced them to stay off the Tour for about three months earlier this year, from March to June, and the absence caused them to lose their leading position; that and, of course, Swedish pair David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig’s fantastic results in the mean time. Mol & Sorum gave up the number one spot to Ahman & Hellvig on April 22. They fell further down from the number two spot on May 27 and then sank as low as number 11 right before rejoining the Tour with an Ostrava Elite16 fourth place and starting their climb back up the chart.
Despite a bronze medal finish at their next event in Gstaad, the Norwegians were still ranked eighth before last week’s Vienna Elite16, partially because they had collected only seven point-carrying appearances over the past one-year period (with the best eight results counting towards the World Ranking). Hence, they held on to the entire 1,200 points that came with their first place in Austria and sky-rocketed up to the number two position in the chart on a new total of 7,860 points. That is 300 clear of previous number two Andre Stein & George Wanderley of Brazil, who did not net-gain any new points in Vienna, but still a solid 1,880 points below leaders Ahman & Hellvig, who did not compete at last week’s Elite16 event.
With Mol & Sorum’s rise, the several teams they surpassed each dropped a spot down, including Germany’s Clemens Wickler & Nils Ehlers, who achieved a fourth-place finish in Vienna. Despite gaining a net of 140 points, the Germans still descended from number three to number four on a total of 7,360 points. One of the four fifth-placed teams in the men’s tournament, Netherlands’ Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot, also shifted down a spot, from fourth to fifth, on 7,260 points. The other three duos that were eliminated in the quarterfinals kept their current positions: USA’s Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh in number nine, Steven van de Velde & Matthew Immers in number 10, and Spain’s Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira in number 17.
Vienna silver medallists Michal Bryl & Bartosz Losiak of Poland improved from 12th to 11th, while bronze medallists Marco Grimalt & Esteban Grimalt of Chile jumped as many as five spots up, to number 16.
Last week’s winners of the women’s tournament, Germany’s Cinja Tillmann & Svenja Muller, who had dropped out of the top 10 for a week after the Gstaad Elite16, are now back, climbing three spots up to number nine, pushing Vienna semifinalists Agatha Bednarczuk & Rebecca Cavalcanti of Brazil out of the top 10, in number 11. The teams occupying positions one to eight in the women’s World Ranking did not change.
Vienna runners-up Joana Mader & Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland climbed from number 18 to number 14, while bronze medallists Terese Cannon & Megan Kraft of USA leapt from number 25 to number 18.
Three of the four teams that shared the fifth place also improved their positions in the World Ranking. Switzerland’s Esmee Bobner & Zoe Verge-Depre moved up one spot to number 13, Australia’s Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho Del Solar jumped seven positions up to number 21, and USA’s Betsi Flint & Julia Scoles ascended two positions to number 22, while the fourth pair, Austria’s Dorina Klinger & Ronja Klinger, stayed put in number 26.
