Christian Sorum and Anders Mol beat Russia in the men’s beach volleyball gold medal match on Saturday, earning Norway’s first Olympic medal in the sport. The top-seeded Norwegians beat the reigning world champions 21-17, 21-18 in an intermittent rain at the Shiokaze Park venue overlooking Tokyo Bay. With Qatar’s victory over Latvia for the bronze earlier Saturday, all three countries on the podium and all six players are first-time medalists.
In fact, the only repeat medalist in either the men’s or women’s divisions was American April Ross, who won gold with Alix Klineman on Friday. Ross had also won silver in London and bronze in Rio de Janeiro.
Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy led 8-4 before giving up six straight points, including one when Mol went up for a block and landed on Krasilnikov’s foot. The Russians called for a timeout and limped to their bench for treatment, but the match resumed and Norway extended the lead to 15-11.
The second set was tied 12-12 before Norway scored four points in a row and never trailed again.
Cherif Younousse Samba and Ahmed Tijan of Qatar beat Latvia 21-12, 21-18 in the third-place match the first Olympic medal in the sport for any country in the Middle East.
“Right now we are on the map forever," Younousse said. “Beach volleyball in Qatar, its going to be on the map forever, too."
Martins Plavins was trying to earn his second bronze medal, to go with the one he won in London. Instead, he and Edgar Tocs finish fourth just as the Latvian women did a day earlier.
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