FIVB Volleyball Empowerment beneficiaries Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway conquered the gold medal at their last Beach Pro Tour event of the season together, the Montreal Elite in Canada. Two home teams – Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett and Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson – also with support from the program, earned the bronze medals for men and for women, respectively. Brazil’s Andre Stein & Renato Lima completed the men’s podium with silver, while another Brazilian duo – Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes – triumphed on top of the women’s podium. USA’s Kristen Cruz & Taryn Brasher finished runners-up.
Norges Volleyballforbund, the Norwegian national federation, has so far been funded with a total of USD 252,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national beach volleyball teams, with Jetmund Bernsten in charge of the men’s duos. In addition, a USD 6,000 for a national team coach development knowledge transfer program was granted. Volleyball Canada’s beach volleyball department has also been allocated a total of USD 252,000 in FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support for their national duos. The women’s pairs are working under Serbian coach Srdjan Veckov, while the men’s teams benefit from the expertise of coach Josh Nichol. In addition, a USD 6,000 has been granted for a national team coach development knowledge transfer program as well.
In Anders Mol & Christian Sorum’s last Beach Pro Tour tournament before Mol joins his new Italian club ahead of the upcoming new indoor season, the Norwegian standouts swept all six of their matches in straight sets to end their Tour season with the Montreal Elite gold. The former Olympic, world and European champions enriched the duo’s impressive medal collection from the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and the Beach Pro Tour combined to 29 golds, eight silvers and seven bronzes. Third-seeded Mol & Sorum hammered out a 2-0 (21-15, 21-10) shutout of fellow Beachvolley Vikings Hendrik Mol & Mathias Berntsen, seeded 10th, in an all-Norwegian semifinal. In the gold-medal showdown, the bronze medalists of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games put together a 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) victory over 13th-seeded Brazilians Andre Stein & Renato Lima, who came into the main draw through the qualifiers.
Samuel Schachter & Jonathan Pickett of Canada earned their first Beach Pro Tour medal together after a bumpy ride at the Montreal Elite. They lost three of the seven games they played in the tournament (all to Brazilian teams, including twice to Andre & Renato), but the four wins were still enough to get them on the podium. In the bronze medal match, the home pair achieved a 2-1 (16-21, 28-26, 15-12) comeback win over Mol & Berntsen.
Andre & Renato travelled a long journey of seven consecutive wins in Montreal to get from the qualifications to their first Beach Pro Tour podium as a team. They crowned that streak with a narrow 2-1 (21-12, 16-21, 16-14) win over Schachter & Pickett in the semifinals.
Defending champions of the previous two editions of the Montreal tournament Melissa Humana-Paredes & Brandie Wilkerson had to settle for bronze this time. The Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalists, seeded on top of the women’s main draw bracket, lost only one of their six games, a 2-1 (19-21, 22-20, 15-7) semifinal against champions-to-be Thamela Coradello & Victoria Lopes of Brazil. The home team bounced back with a nail-biting 2-1 (20-22, 21-12, 18-16) turnaround in the third-place playoff against 10th-seeded Germans Svenja Muller & Cinja Tillmann and climbed on a Beach Pro Tour podium for the ninth time as a pair.
Eighth-seeded Thamela & Victoria, formerly reigning as the number one team in the FIVB World Ranking, lost to Melissa & Brandie in pool play, but that was their only setback of the tournament. They managed to get back at the Canadians in the semifinals, and went on to battle it out for a 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-12) comeback victory over USA’s Kristen Cruz & Taryn Brasher in the final to celebrate their fourth gold and overall 13th medal on the Beach Pro Tour.
Second-seeded Cruz & Brasher stopped just short of adding a fourth gold to their 2026 Beach Pro Tour collection. Shaping up a five-game winning streak, they mastered a 2-0 (21-16, 21-19) shutout of Muller & Tillmann in their semifinal, thus securing their 21st podium in Beach Pro Tour history. Also medalists of the last two editions of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the American duo has now collected 14 gold, five silver and two bronze medals on the Tour itself.
A total of 28 men’s and 28 women’s pairs representing 17 different federations took part in the Montreal Elite.
