The Swedish 20-year-olds David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig have been successful in the beach volleyball EC. In the final, the Swedes crushed the Czechs Ondrej Perusic, 27, and David Schweiner, 28, at the Königsplatz in Munich in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
— David is the team’s party planner. Unfortunately, we have to run to catch a flight right after the award ceremony, but we will celebrate properly in Sweden, says David Åhman in the victory interview on SVT’s broadcast.
Knocked out Olympic gold duo
In the semi-finals, in their first senior championship, the Swedes defeated the Norwegian Olympic gold duo Anders Mol and Christian Sørum.
Hellvig and Åhman have been dominant in beach volleyball at youth level. It has won gold in the Youth Olympics, the U18 European Championship, the U20 European Championship, the U22 European Championship and the U21 World Cup. The U21 World Cup gold was also the first ever World Cup medal for Swedish volleyball.
The final started extremely evenly. The Swedes and the Czechs traded points with each other, but neither team managed to win straight away. Then the duo Åhman and Hellvig woke up for real. The Swedes took a 6-3 lead and the Czechs saw no other way out than to take a timeout.
However, it was not enough. Hellvig and Åhman held off and finally won the first set 21–16.
Two dropped match balls
The Swedish duo started the second set in the same way as they ended the previous one, and thus quickly went up to a 5–1 lead. At a 5-11 deficit, the Czechs were given a yellow card.
After that, Hellvig and Åhman continued to play as if in a trance. The Swedes picked up point after point and finally won the match, despite two dropped match points, with 2–0 in the set and secured a new Swedish championship medal in beach volleyball.
The golden duo also took the opportunity to thank their supporters and the audience after the match.
“Thank you all so much,” says an almost speechless Jonatan Hellvig.
— Thanks for the support, we couldn’t have done it without you. Especially you who were here, you gave so much energy, says Åhman.