Looking to win their third FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship medal together in Australia, Norwegian superstars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum had a solid debut in the 2025 edition of the tournament on Friday.

The Beach Volley Vikings were faced with Uruguayans Hans Hannibal and Nicolás Llambías in one of the very first matches of the event held in Adelaide, and used their larger experience at the highest level to debut with a promising 2-0 (21-17, 21-16) victory.

• Watch the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on VBTV

Making their fourth appearance at the World Championship, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions made the trip to Australia determined to return to the podium after going down in the quarterfinals in the last edition of the event, in 2023. The Norwegians won medals in their first two times competing at the World Championship, taking bronze in Hamburg in 2019 and winning gold in Rome three years later.

The opening-match victory puts Mol and Sørum one step closer to advancing to the elimination rounds out of Pool A. Besides the FIVB World Ranking leaders, Swiss Marco Krattiger and Leo Dillier also won on the first day of matches in the pool, overcoming compatriots Adrian Heidrich and Jonathan Jordan in straight sets (21-18, 22-20).

Norwegian relatives face off in Pool B

Another encounter reuniting teams from the same country, but this one involving four players from the same family, was one of the highlights of the first block of matches in Adelaide. Norwegian brothers Markus and Adrian Mol faced their older brother Hendrik and their cousin Mathias Berntsen in the first match of Pool B and went down in two sets (24-22, 21-15).

The other duel held in Pool B on the first day of matches had Dutch Olympians Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot taking the home team of Luke Ryan and Zachery Schubert down 2-0 (21-11, 21-10).

Two other pools already concluded their first round of matches on Friday. In Pool D, Brazilians Evandro Gonçalves and Arthur Lanci dominated Nicaraguans Ruben Mora and Dany López to a two-set (21-12, 21-10) victory, and Germans Paul Henning and Lui Wüst, who won the first tie-breaker of the event, beating Argentines Bautista Amieva and Maciel Bueno 2-1 (15-21, 31-29, 19-17), secured their first wins.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships: Match schedule & Results

In Pool F, Cubans Jorge Alayo and Noslen Díaz, who topped Benin's Yacoubou Daouda and Mensan Tohouegnon 2-0 (21-11, 21-6), and Portuguese Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa, who got the better of New Zealand's Bradley Fuller and Ben O'Dea, winning in two sets (24-22, 21-18), started ahead.

Another ten men's matches will be held on Friday, with nine of the 12 pools completing their first round on the first day of action in Australia.

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