Few choose Mol/Sørum in Munich. The Norwegian star couple looked tired and never quite reached the top level. Faults abound in the sand at Königsplatz.

– They pushed all the way on their serve, and fought us out of rhythm. “We were very close many times, but we didn’t get any flow in our game,” disappointed Christian Sørum told NRK after the semi-final defeat.

20-year-old David Hman and Jonathan Hellvig won the semi-finals after a three-set drama 21-16, 21-23, 15-13. Earlier this week, the roles were reversed (Norway win in the pool).

– It feels really great. Our first objective in the championship is to progress from the group stage. Suddenly we came all the way here. “We have gone into every game with the attitude that we have everything to win,” the delighted Swedish duo told NRK after the final ticket was secured.

The European Championship defeat was Mol and Sørum’s first since being knocked out in the quarter-finals in 2017. It ended after 30 games as unbeaten and four gold medals in the tournament.

This afternoon they played bronze medal matches against Poland’s Michal Bryl and Bartosz Losiak.

reduced

Mol/Sørum are title holders in all major championships in beach volleyball (Olympics, WC and EC), but triples are now reduced to doubles. In June, they became world champions for the first time.

Norway had the initiative early on, but completely lost their grip midway through the opening set. 10-7 became 10-10, and Norway has been on the defensive ever since.

Neither the serve nor the blocks sit as they normally would. Mol and Sørum looked impressive in the sun in front of the full stands, where the opponent received the biggest support so far.

– It was heavy, and we couldn’t catch it. We really had to fight for every point. Sweden played a great game today, so congratulations to them. “We’re going to have a lot of “ugly” games with them going forward,” Anders Mol said after the game.

The mole recently struggled with strep throat and came into the EC weakened. That was especially evident at the start of the Munich championship.

Accelerated

It also looked bad for Norway in the second set. hman and Hellvig played up to 9-5 and were aiming for a straight sets win, but at the last minute the Norwegians came back.

Mol/Sørum are known to be tough under pressure, and we have another example of that.

Sweden took advantage of match points at 21-20. They suffered for it, but stayed close throughout the third set and took the underdog victory.