It was set up for a red-hot Nordic prestige meeting in the European Championship final in Düsseldorf.
"El Clasico", as Christian Sørum expressed it in SVT.
And just as expected, it became a dramatic event – even and unpredictable.
Canon start
The first set became an even struggle where Åhman/Hellvig and Mol/Sørum followed each other point for point. The teams took turns having the upper hand, but towards the end the Swedes pulled away and won the set 21–17.
In the second set, the match picture got a different character. The Norwegians took command directly, controlled the game and equalized in the set by winning 21–15.
The final thus went to a decisive set.
There, the Norwegian world stars showed their strength. Mol and Christian Sørum kept their nerves in check, won 15–11 and secured their fifth European Championship gold.
They are so sickly difficult to beat. They are so good. But we won this time, says Mol in the victory interview in SVT.
"A good match"
The Swedes were satisfied with the effort but disappointed with the loss.
We make a good match, in the first set we play fantastically well, says Hellvig and continues:
We have the lead in the third set but lose the last balls, it's of course sad.
The loss is David Åhman's and Jonatan Hellvig's first in a final so far.
The Norwegians are number one bigger than the Swedes when it comes to merits – the pair is world number one and has won five European Championship finals with today's triumph (2018–2021, 2025). The Swedes are third in the world and have two European Championship golds previously (2022 and 2023).
