Olympic champs Mol and Sørum win fourth straight European title

Olympic champions Anders Mol and Christian Sørum claimed their fourth consecutive European title in Vienna on Sunday (15 August).

The Norwegians were pushed all the way by Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands, taking an hour and seven minutes to win 21-19, 24-26, 15-12.

The Dutch pair enjoyed the best win of their career at last month's FIVB World Tour event in Gstaad, beating subsequent Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar in the final.

And they gave further proof of their abilities in a thrilling duel with the world's premier pairing.

Superior serving helped the favourites in the first set with Mol and Sørum on top three aces to zero.

Boermans and de Groot went into a 15-10 lead in the second, but Mol and Sørum fought back and saved five set points before eventually being taken to a decider.

It looked like a huge upset might be on the cards when the Dutch led 11-9 in the decider, but some fine blocks from Mol helped them into the lead and they eventually took it 15-12.

In the semi-finals, Mol and Sørum defeated another Dutch pair - Rio 2016 bronze medallists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen - just as they had done in the last 16 in Tokyo.

it was a closer affair this time with the Norwegians prevailing 15-13 in the third set.

Brouwer and Meeuwsen, world champions in 2013, missed out on bronze as they went down to Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak.

The Poles, who went out in the lucky loser round between the group and knockout stages in Tokyo, won 21-14, 21-19 to finish on the podium.

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