Mol and Sørum take gold in Las Vegas – Brandie and Heather on top among the women

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Mol and Sørum won their fourth-straight World Tour title (Photocredit: FIVB)

Beach Volley Vikings Anders Mol and Christian Sørum took the 2018 Beach Volleyball Major Series by storm, winning the Gstaad and Vienna Majors and the World Tour Finals in Hamburg, but they didn’t stop there.

The Norwegians won their fourth World Tour gold medal in a row as they triumphed in the four-star event in Las Vegas this weekend. Canadians Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson topped the women’s podium.

Mol and Sørum, the 2018 European champions, faced Polish Grzegorz Fijalek and Michal Bryl for the third-straight time in gold medal matches and, as it had happened in Vienna and Hamburg, they took their opponents down in straight sets (21-13, 21-17) to claim another gold medal.

“Every match against them is different, but we played a really good game even though it wasn’t perfect”, Mol explained. “The thing with us is that we never take it easy. Even when we have a big lead, as it was in the first set, we keep hustling for every point. We know that one point can change the entire game, so we just want to keep focused all the time.”

Russians Oleg Stoyanovisky and Viacheslav Krasilnikov completed the all-European podium at the Sin City after they defeated Americans Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb in the three-set (21-13, 18-21, 20-18) bronze medal match.

Heather and Brandie on top on Canadian duel

In the women’s tournament, Bansley and Wilkerson came out on top of the first-ever all-Canadian World Tour final as they posted a 2-1 (21-17, 17-21, 15-9) victory over Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes.

Wilkerson and Bansley took down compatriots Pavan and Humana-Paredes (Photocredit: FIVB)

“I think it’s a mix of us figuring out their game a little better and also getting better as a team”, Bansley said about their victory after four straight setbacks to their compatriots. “We’ve put a lot of hard work this season and we’ve seen ourselves improving. We’re just getting smarter in the court. But we scouted them and took it as any other game. We focused on what we could do well and it worked.”

The all-Brazilian bronze medal match in Las Vegas didn’t get to its end as Ana Patrícia Ramos had to leave the game due to a left ankle injury after partner Rebecca Silva and her had won the first set. With that, Carolina Salgado and Maria Elisa Antonelli claimed bronze.

The World Tour continues next week with a three-star women-only event in Chetumal, Mexico.