Norway’s Anders Mol & Christian Sorum will meet Germany’s Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler, and Qatar’s Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan will lock horns with Sweden’s David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig in the men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament semifinals on Thursday evening. Mol & Sorum and Cherif & Ahmed won the men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday evening and advanced to the last four, to within a win from the Olympic podium. Meanwhile, legendary six-time Olympian Pablo Herrera was paid due respect for playing the last match of his remarkable Olympic journey.

Second-seeded Mol & Sorum improved to a 5-0 win-loss record in the tournament, after playing a solid match against 18^th-seeded Pablo Herrera & Adrian Gavira and eliminating the Spanish team in a 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) straight-setter. The end of the match was truly emotional for the thousands of fans at the Eiffel Tower Stadium as they all paid due respect with standing ovations for Athens 2004 Olympic silver medallist Herrera, for whom this was the last Olympic match in his record-breaking six Olympic participations. The winners of the game also showed their respect for the legendary player.

In both sets of the match, the reigning Olympic champions managed to run off with an early lead and then just kept pace to keep the Spaniards at bay and close the sets victoriously, the first one with a kill block by Mol, the second with a successful spike by Sorum. Pablo Herrera finished as the best scorer of his last Olympic match with 20 points, including one block. Sorum led the Norwegian team with 19 points, all in attack. Mol added another 16 towards the victory, including five blocks and an ace.

“I think we played a really solid match,” Mol told the FIVB. “We were really focused and the atmosphere was amazing once again here, under the Eiffel Tower. It was also extra special to play in Pablo’s last Olympic match. So, all in all, it was a very nice match and we are really proud to be in the semifinals again.”

“It’s going to be a tough game against Germany. They are really on fire this tournament and playing their best volleyball, so it’s going to be a super tough game and we just have to rest well and prepare as good as we can,” Sorum added. “And Pablo is a legend in the sport. He has played six Olympics and it’s just unreal. He has been our idol for many, many years. I remember my first time in Tenerife I had a chance to practice with him and that was really big for me. We also had our first final against Spain in Switzerland. Pablo is a legend in this sport.”

“It was a really big moment with all these people clapping for us!” said Herrera. “It was a difficult game. Anders and Christian played amazing and did not give us a chance to stay together in the final set. And that’s all. No crying… We have a lot of good memories and this is it…”

13^th-seeded Cherif & Ahmed did not leave many chances to ninth-seeded Miles Partain & Andrew Benesh and hammered out a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) win over the Americans in the last duel of the quarterfinal round. They are still undefeated after five matches played in Paris.

In the first set, Partain & Benesh stayed competitive through 12-11 in their favour, when the Qatari pair went on a seven-point run, which pre-decided the outcome. In the second, Cherif & Ahmed broke away after 5-5 and never looked back, staying well in control through the end, which came on a Cherif ace for 21-16.

Cherif’s tally also included five kill blocks and 13 kills in attack towards a 19-point match high. Ahmed added 11 points, also including on ace. Benesh, on the other side, also put up five kill blocks to lead his team with a total of 15 points.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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