For both beach volleyball players, it’s been a summer full of adventure. In recent weeks, they have become European champions, won two major tournaments and on Monday they were ranked the best team in the world.

Jan Kvalheim, who with Bjørn Maaseide was the last Norwegian duo to top the world rankings in the 90s, insists the success was no coincidence.

– Previously we seemed afraid of the US and Brazil, but now they and the whole world are afraid of Anders (Mol) blocks and Christian (Sørum) games. I think there will be a lot of people who are afraid to meet them, and that’s a big advantage.

His former partner Bjørn Maaseide has also been following the two young people for a long time. He believes that the way the two complement each other is an important success factor:

– Christian Sørum received most of the serves and broke very well. And when he takes the ball on defense, he often hits it for points, so they are a very efficient team, Maaseide said.

– Extreme nature

Mol’s childhood dream was to earn a living playing beach volleyball, but the 21-year-old was surprised at how quickly they reached the top.

– Our goal this year was to win a medal on the World Tour, but I never imagined that we would be the best team in the world. It’s crazy how quickly this happened, he told NRK.

It wasn’t just the Norwegian duo who were surprised. In recent weeks, Jan Kvalheim has received text messages and emails from all over the world, and they are all about the Norwegian team.

– I think in beach volleyball you have to have extreme quality and Anders Mol’s blocks are very high. “I don’t think any block player in the World Series has as high a range as he does,” Kvalheim said.

– Dominated

When Mol talked about the first time he played with Christian Sørum, he said that the feeling of chemistry was always the opposite.

– We first played together in a tournament in 2016. Then we had never played together and had to go through qualifying, but we actually managed to take fifth place in a tournament probably this year. This shows how good the chemistry was from the start, he said.

The block giant is now at home in Bergen relaxing before the final tournament of the world series, which will be played in Hamburg in a week’s time. And even if he doesn’t want to take off completely, he still does A little from.

– Now we have played a lot of matches at a high level and are constantly “pushed” as much as possible. “It’s important for our development, but we’ve reached that level and almost dominated the last few tournaments,” Mol said.