Cancun gold puts Mol & Sorum in World Tour’s top 10

Anders Mol and Christian Sorum’s rapid rise on the international beach volleyball scene reached a significant milestone on Tuesday as the Norwegians entered the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour’s men’s top 10 in team victories with their 11th title together, earned in the first 4-star tournament at the Cancun Hub, in Mexico.

Currently ranked first in the world, the Norwegians completed a perfect first week on Mexican sand with a 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) victory against Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan that took them to the highest step on the podium at Playa Delfines.

“They are so strong and have beaten so many great teams in this tournament,” Mol said about their opponents. “It's always a battle against them, they have so much energy and play with a lot of passion. It’s always fun to play against them because they bring so much athleticism and skill to the court. They really push us to play at our best and today we battled it out. I’m so proud that we managed to win this amazing trophy in our first tournament in almost two years.”

The 11 World Tour gold medals the Beach Volley Vikings collected between 2018 and 2021 have put them in tenth position in terms of the number of international victories for a team. The top 10 is headed by Brazilian Olympic champions Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego, who triumphed in 34 events, and has Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Roger at second with 23.

A top three spot is in close reach for Mol and Sorum, who need just five more victories to overtake Jose Loiola/Emanuel Rego and Jose Marco Melo/Emanuel Rego, who won 15 tournaments each.

“It’s crazy, hard to believe,” Sorum added. “It’s just amazing to play tournaments with Anders again and face so many strong teams. To be at the top of the podium once again is really amazing. We had some difficulties last year and I’m super proud that we managed to play such good volleyball in our first tournament in a long time.”

Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner collected their second medal in as many events as the Czechs finished third in Cancun. The Europeans, who are fresh from winning their first gold medal together last month in Doha, ended their campaign in the first tournament in Mexico with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-12) bronze medal match victory over Austrian qualifiers Martin Ermacora and Moritz Pristauz.

They had met the Austrians in their first match in Cancun, on Saturday, and lost in straight sets in pool play.

“Our first match was easily the worst we played here, we made a lot of mistakes and didn’t push enough on serving,” Schweiner explained. “Now we played well and it paid off. We made way fewer mistakes and this was the deciding point. We’re extremely happy.”

The result gives a sizeable boost to the team’s Olympic aspirations as the Czechs managed to add 240 points to their Olympic rankings total after the first tournament in Cancun.

“These results help us a lot,” Perusic said. “We knew before the start of the season that we’d need to perform really well to qualify for the Olympics. I’d say we are one of the teams that benefited from the long break because we had a lot of time to practise our system and to work on the things that we’re not really good at. I hope that after this result the Olympics get really, really close.”

Go to:
Cancun Hub - 1st event
Cancun Hub - 1st event - Match schedule
Provisional Olympic ranking - Men
Provisional Olympic ranking - Women

Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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