2018-09-03 16:31:00 CET
Anders Mol and Christian Sørum dominate FIVB honors
World Tour Finals champion Anders Mol scooped four end-of-season awards – including Most Outstanding – as he and Christian Sørum captured a host of honors from the FIVB.
At 21, Anders becomes the youngest winner of the Most Outstanding award, and the Norwegian blocker also picked up the Best Blocker, Best Offensive Player and Most Improved Player prizes.
Teammate Sørum did not go unnoticed either, winning the Best Defensive Player. Together the duo ended the campaign top of the world rankings following a string of gold medals, winning four tournaments in a row: in Gstaad, Vienna, Hamburg and at the European Championships
In the other awards, there was no surprises in the Best Server category as reigning World Champion Evandro Gonçalves won the award for the fourth season running. Fellow Brazilian, Ricardo Santos, was selected for the highly-coveted Most Inspirational Award and the former Olympic champ – still playing aged 43 – shared the Sportsperson of the Year prize with Latvian Aleksandrs Samoilovs.
The Lion King’s teammate, Janis Smedins, won Best Setter award, while the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer was voted Best Hitter for the second year in a row.
Finally, young Russian Igor Velichko was named Rookie of the Year, after a season that saw him win two gold medals on the World Tour and reach the World Tour Finals.
Men’s roll of honor:
Most Outstanding Player: Anders Mol
Best Blocker: Anders Mol
Most Improved Player: Anders Mol
Best Offensive Player: Anders Mol
Best Defensive Player: Christian Sørum
Best Server: Evandro Gonçalves
Best Setter: Janis Smedins
Most Inspirational: Ricardo
Sportsman: Ricardo and Aleksandrs Samoilovs
Rookie: Igor Velichko
The women’s awards will be announced at 4pm CEST on Tuesday.