Nils Ehlers appeared in the quarter-finals of the European Beach Volleyball Championship alongside Clemens Wickler against the Norwegians Andres Mol and Christian Sørum, as if he were amazed at what was happening beyond the net. The 2.10 meter tall German blocker could do whatever he wanted, his opponent, who was ten centimeters smaller on the other side, almost always had a better answer ready.
The result was correspondingly clear: 15:21 and 14:21 after two rather one-sided sets. “A swatter,” Wickler summed up the lesson given by the Olympic champions, world champions and four-time European champions from Norway, who easily made it into the semi-finals on Sunday (12:30 p.m.) against the Swedes David Ahman/Jonathan Hellvig. “The score lies,” said Christian Sørum in the style of a sporty gentleman – the two Germans played much better than the result said.
Clap or honorable defeat, with the match point on Saturday afternoon, the last of the nine German teams that started the tournament was eliminated – and the most hopeful one at that, after all, Ehlers/Wickler were third in the elite tournament on the World Tour in a week ago Hamburg occupied.
Frustrated: Clemens Wickler (r.) and Nils Ehlers
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Image: Reuters
In the northern metropolis, Karla Borger and Julia Sude also finished third on Sunday – and they too failed in the quarter-finals in the heart of southern Germany. But also against the best: The Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravčenoka were too strong for Borger/Sude on Friday at 2:0 (21:18, 21:18) and finally won the final with 2:1 (18:21, 21:15, 15:11) against the defending champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli from Switzerland.
10:0 sets in five matches had already spoken for the Latvians before the final on this Saturday evening, but their final opponents had also smashed their way through the tournament confidently. Hüberli/Brunner didn’t lose a set before the final either, winning hands down (21:19, 21:9) in the preliminary round against the interim duo Kira Walkenhorst/Louisa Lippmann and just as easily (21:12, 21:15) in the second round Quarterfinals against Chantal Laboureur/Sarah Schulz.
Too strong for the Germans: Nina Brunner (left) and Tanja Hüberli from Switzerland
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Image: dpa
After 24 medals for German women’s teams since 1994, two fifth places represent a rather sobering result. The German champion Chantal Laboureur consoled herself after the match with the great atmosphere on Munich’s Königsplatz: the atmosphere was “awesome”. And her partner also enthused despite the defeat: “All hell is going on here”. That is very motivating, said Sarah Schulz, especially when you compare it to other tournaments “somewhere in the middle of nowhere”.
Even the serene Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Sørum, who have been successfully touring around the world in beach volleyball for years, have won all European championship titles since 2018, as well as the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021 and just a few weeks ago the World Cup in Rome, were enthusiastic about the Munich team Audience: “You understand beach volleyball. It should be like this everywhere.”
And so the former boom sport, which has recently started to falter, can book this European Championship in Germany as a great success – even if the performance of the local protagonists did not live up to expectations. Nils Ehlers concluded by saying that he hadn’t let himself be impressed by the stars on the other side, but was “completely himself” – only unfortunately it didn’t work out what he had planned.
