Norway’s Beachvolley Vikings are looking to arrive at Adelaide’s The Drive and Pinky Flat for the 2025 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in top form and with only the title in mind.
Anders Mol & Christian Sorum, seeded first in the men’s event, will lead the nation’s Olympic and world championship pedigree. Known as one of the most dominant pairs in the sport, Mol & Sorum first joined forces in 2016 and have never looked back.
Christian Sorum plays defence in a match at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 Rio.
They competed throughout the FIVB World Tour era before climbing to the top of the men’s podium at the 2022 World Championships in Rome. Their Olympic success includes gold at Tokyo 2020 and bronze at Paris 2024, solidifying their reputation among the sport’s elite.
Mol & Sorum were also the first-ever Beach Pro Tour champions, winning the Finals in Doha in 2022. They added a second title in the Qatari capital in 2024 after narrowly missing the trophy in 2023.
Hendrik Mol & Mathias Berntsen enter Adelaide ranked 23rd as part of the national team programme. The duo have roots that trace back to their junior years, when they competed with different partners before reuniting in the build-up to the Tokyo 2020 qualification cycle. Since then, they have gained momentum as a consistent senior tandem on the Beach Pro Tour, often emerging from qualifiers to reach the main draw.
Hendrik Mol & Mathias Berntsen win bronze at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 Cape Town.
Their breakthrough came with a memorable victory over Brazilian legends Alison & Guto at the Jurmala Elite 16 in 2022. They followed this with their first Beach Pro Tour medal, a silver at the Agadir Challenge in 2023, and later their first Elite 16 podium with bronze in Cape Town in October 2025.
Markus Mol & Adrian Mol complete Norway’s line-up, seeded 26th in the men’s competition. The youngest pairing in the national set-up have shown promise at the Challenge level, pushing through qualification to the main draw in Haikou in 2024 and advancing to the semi-finals in Xiamen in May 2025.
Markus & Adrian Mol celebrate a point in a match at the Beach Pro Tour Joao Pessoa.
Norway have built a formidable legacy in beach volleyball, achieving milestones remarkable for a Northern European nation. Anchored by a strong national team programme, their success stands as a clear example of how the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment initiative continues to strengthen national programmes around the world.
From 2025 to 2027, the FIVB is supporting the Norwegian Volleyball Federation with USD 252,000 in coach support. Jetmund Berntsen, who has helped steer the programme since 2015, continues to coach his son Mathias’ tandem with Hendrik Mol, as well as the younger duo of Markus & Adrian Mol.
Meanwhile, former Italian Olympian Adrian Carambula has taken the helm as coach of Mol & Sorum since the close of the 2024 season, succeeding long-time mentors Kare Mol & Jetmund Berntsen.
In an interview in early 2025, Sorum explained: “Kare has been doing a good job for many years, and he wants to step down a little bit. We also have Jetmund but he is taking more of the youth players. We were searching for a coach, and Adrian was done playing. We just asked him, and he was considering it. We had a try-out in Doha, and it worked out really well,” he said, referring to their 2024 Beach Pro Tour Finals victory.
Carambula added: “The chemistry is great. We get to talk about high-level volleyball. We understand each other. There is not much translation going on. So far, so good.”
As Mol & Sorum set their sights on Adelaide, they continue to benefit from a robust national team programme strengthened by Volleyball Empowerment support. Their pursuit of more medals, titles and trophies goes on – and so far, so good.
