Sweden has produced world class beach volleyball players.
David Umann and Jonathan Helveg are ready for the final of the European Championships in Munich after a landslide victory over the Norwegian world champion.
– I really feel for these guys. They’re incredibly impressive, says Matthias Magnusson, expert commentator at SVT.
Anders Mole Bernzen and Christian Sorum Sandley are two of the best beach volleyball players in the world.
The Norwegian duo is world number one, Olympic champion and four-time European champion.
But in the semi-finals of the European Commission in Munich against two 20-year-old Swedish players, the Norwegians, who have not lost a set in the tournament, received a lesson.
special playing style
David Uhmann and Jonathan Helveg won with excitement in the playoffs (21-16, 21-23, 15-13) and have now written the history of Swedish beach volleyball. When I kicked the match ball, the rejoicing had no limits.
– I really feel for these guys. They are incredibly impressive. World stars are in the making in one of the best sports in the world. “We have a group of 20-year-olds who beat the best team in the world,” says Matthias Magnusson, expert commentator at SVT.
Sweden has never won an EC medal before. Tom Englen and Frederick Peterson reached the quarter-finals of the European Championships in 1997, and Björn Berg and Simon Dahl achieved the feat in 2004.
However, Uhmann and Helveg do not come out of nowhere. In recent years, the duo have successfully cleaned the house in European Championships at youth level, taking gold at the European Under-18, Under-20 and Under-22 Championships. They also have a peculiar style of beach volleyball, which has come to be known as the “Swedish jump set”.
In the final, Czech duo David Schweiner and Ondrej Perozic await later this afternoon, at 17.30. In other words, the Swedish medal is already guaranteed.
