In a splendid final the young Norwegian Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sørum have conquered the European title. In the stadium in the Zuiderpark (The Hague) that was sold out, they won in an impressive manner from the Letts Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins. The scores were 21-17 and 21-13 for the Norwegians, who last week also wrote the Gstaad Major on their name. “What a tremendous tournament, we have extremely enjoyed the fanatic public in Apeldoorn and The Hague”.
The Letts Samoilovs en Smedins, who conquered silver in 2017 during the European Championship in their own country, started strong in this final. With an ace by Smedins the score became 6-8. But the Norwegians stayed cool and fought back very clever and after a good series of services and two kill blocks by Mol the score suddenly was 13-10 for the young Norwegians.
The high block by Mol clearly impressed the experienced Letts; Samoilovs tried to pass but that resulted with a ball in the net: 17-13. After another powerful block by Mol Latvia fled away in a time-out at a score of 19-14. The Norwegians were not to get out of their rhythm and finalized the first set after some Latvian points to 21-17.
In the second set Mol showed again his strength immediately with a block and the score was quickly 3-0. Samoilovs and Smedins shortly came together to discuss the tactics and that resulted into effect. They came back via the first kill block by Samoilovs in the final, result: 4-3.
With powerful play the young Norwegians again conquered a nice advance: 8-4. The Letts took a time-out, but Mol and Sørum continued to play powerful and stayed cool in the field.
Fully convinced the Vikings continued, the Letts did not get a chance to reset themselves. The Norwegians dominated the match completely; both attacking, defensive and blocking they were outstanding and ran out to 18-10.
The control was not given away and it looked like becoming a master class. Upon the decisive point, 21-13, Mol ran enchanted a round also to thank the public. There after the young Norwegians , the new European champions, hugged each other firmly.