Four days after meeting in the first match for both teams at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16, Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sørum and USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain will battle again on Sunday, this time for the gold medals of the iconic tournament held in the Swiss Alps.

The two teams went undefeated in the elimination rounds on Saturday and will play for the title in the last match of the men’s tournament, at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC), two hours before Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak and Brazil’s Andre Loyola/George Wanderley meet for bronze.

• Watch the Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 live on VBTV

Chasing their third title in Gstaad, Mol and Sørum had a long day in the Swiss Alps on Saturday as they had to play three matches after finishing second in Pool A in the opening phase of the tournament – the Norwegians won FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events in the city in 2018 and 2019.

The Norwegians had a slim edge over Austrians Alexander Horst and Julian Hörl in the morning in the Round of 12, claiming a tight 2-0 (21-19, 23-21) victory to move forward. In the quarterfinals, in the early afternoon, the Beach Volley Vikings battled fellow Olympic medallists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar and pulled out another close win, triumphing 2-1 (31-33, 21-17, 15-13).

The Norwegians returned to the court a few hours later and again needed three sets (21-19, 18-21, 15-11) to knock down Bryl and Łosiak, who were undefeated entering the match, in the semifinals.

“To play three matches in one day was insane”, Sørum said. “It was super tough. Poland played really well, they're a really strong team and it's always a battle against them. Playing in the centre court is so much fun and the court helped us a lot.”

Beach Pro Tour Gstaad Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results

Because they won Pool A, Benesh and Partain had only two matches in their schedule on Saturday, both against Brazilian teams. In the first of them, in the quarterfinals, the two eliminated Pedro Solberg and Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes with a two-set (21-19, 21-13) victory.

L'esito è stato simile nel secondo duello, contro Andre e George, con Benesh e Partain che hanno ottenuto una vittoria in due set (21-14, 21-15) per raggiungere la loro prima finale in un evento Elite16 - i due hanno conquistato il bronzo a Ostrava qualche settimana fa.

"Andy ha giocato davvero bene, bloccando un sacco di palle", ha commentato Partain. "Ci siamo superati bene ed è stato fantastico poter eseguire i nostri jumpset, questo ci ha aiutato molto. Non abbiamo molta esperienza e questo ci ha aiutato a compensare lo svantaggio. È fantastico arrivare alla nostra prima finale in un Elite16. Sono cresciuta guardando i tornei di Gstaad ed è fantastico essere qui".

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