On a sunny and hot Sunday in Adelaide, Swedish sports history is being written. Never before has Sweden won a World Cup gold medal in beach volleyball and never before has it won two medals in the same championship. Around the same time as the sun sets over the Torrens River, both of those things will change in the arena.
Sweden has guaranteed both gold and silver, it's absolutely fantastic, says David Åhman after he and teammate Jonatan Hellvig defeated the Germans Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler in their semifinal.
Form or routine?
The two Swedish teams have trained together a lot and know each other well. But they are entering the final with completely different conditions. What weighs more: form or routine? Åhman has been suffering from knee problems during the autumn and he and Hellvig have had to work their way into the championship. At the same time, this is their second straight World Cup final.
They have been in these situations before and Jacob and I haven't really, so I wouldn't say we have a super big advantage against David and Jonatan, who are one of the best teams of all time, says Elmer Andersson about the upcoming final.
However, he and Jacob Hölting Nilsson have impressed greatly during the season and are ranked third in the world, two places higher than Åhman/Hellvig.
"It's clear that there may be a slight advantage with routine, but at the same time Jacob and Elmer are in the form of their lives. It's important that we find our best game so that we can beat them," says David Åhman.
“We never thought”
Jonatan Hellvig agrees:
They have played incredibly well, it could go either way tomorrow, he says.
If there is one thing the teams agree on, it is that this championship is something special for Swedish beach volleyball.
That Sweden, which is a winter country, should have two teams in a final is completely unbelievable. If you had said that a few years ago, no one would have believed it, says Jacob Hölting Nilsson.
We never thought that before this tournament, it's super fun, says David Åhman.
The final will be broadcast on SVT at 9:30 on Sunday.
