Anders Mol & Christian Sorum returned to the throne of Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour champions, which was taken away from them by David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig. On Saturday evening, the Norwegians got back at the Swedes for the defeat in the 2023 Doha Finals final and beat them in the 2024 Doha Finals final to claim the crown for the second time, after 2022. Overall, the Beachvolley Vikings have now collected 11 gold, four silver and five bronze medals over the three seasons of the Beach Pro Tour.
competition/Beach Pro Tour
Mol & Sorum get back at Ahman & Hellvig and return to Beach Pro Tour throne
Home heroes Cherif & Ahmed claim Doha Finals bronze
Published 07:46, 07 Dec 2024
- Watch the Doha Finals on VBTV.
The number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, Ahman & Hellvig, settled for silver, their second Finals medal and overall 16th Tour podium.
Top-seeded home heroes Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan picked up the bronze. It was the first-ever Beach Pro Tour Finals medal for the Qatari pair and overall seventh podium on the Tour.
The 2024 Doha Finals men's podium
In Saturday’s gold medal showdown in Doha, third-seeded Mol & Sorum mastered a 2-0 (21-18, 22-20) victory over Ahman & Hellvig and also got back at the young Swedish jump-setters for the three-set defeat they suffered in their pool-stage game. While the Norwegians stayed well in control throughout the first set, the second offered an even battle, with several changes in the lead. Ahman & Hellvig were even the first to reach set point, but Mol & Sorum reacted with three in a row, crowned with a kill on two by Mol for the match winner. Sorum led the winners with 16 points, including two kill blocks, while Mol added another 11 points, including two kill blocks and two aces. Hellvig topped the charts with a 17-point match high, featuring five kill blocks.
“It feels amazing to be on top of the podium here at the last tournament of the season,” Mol told VBTV after the end of the gold medal match. “We have worked hard this year, got back from injury, we battled hard at the Olympics and now, to take this Beach Pro Tour Finals and be on top is an amazing feeling. This also gives us a lot of motivation to keep working now in the off-season. Super, super proud of this game!”
“It’s a tough team to play against. They beat us in the pool, they are the Olympic champions, they are such a strong team and had an amazing season. To end the season for us with a win against them is amazing. It feels unreal and I’m just super happy,” commented Sorum. “The team worked hard this week and it paid off in the end. I have a great partner. He is very patient and always doing his best. Thank you, Anders Mol!”
In the third place match, Cherif & Ahmed came back from a set down and denied two opponent match points in the third to squeeze out a 2-1 (18-21, 21-15, 17-15) win over fourth-seeded Stefan Boermans & Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands. Cherif produced seven kill blocks and three aces to finish with 22 points. Ahmed added another 19. De Groot was the best scorer of the match with 24 points.
In a nail-biting semifinal earlier on Saturday, in which each of the sets was decided by the narrowest of margins, Ahman & Hellvig also came back from a set down and edged ahead of Boermans & De Groot by 2-1 (19-21, 21-19, 16-14). Hellvig’s seven kill blocks, but mostly the Dutch team’s abundant unforced errors, made the difference in the match, despite De Groot’s 27-point match high.
Mol raised an amazing 10 kill blocks in the other semifinal, which powered the Norwegians to a convincing 2-0 (21-11, 21-16) shutout of Cherif & Ahmed. Mol finished with a total of 20 points, while Sorum and Cherif scored 17 points each.
