The Norwegian pair, who had progressed from the qualification tournament that began yesterday, earned a shock 21-16, 21-17 result in their opening pool match in the main draw of an event due to conclude Monday (April 23). 

"We feel great, it was such a great game by us, we gave so much and our tactic was really good," said Mol.

"There was a lot of screaming, a lot of emotions on the court, so it was great to shout out the winning final scream."

Alison previously won gold in Xiamen, an International Volleyball Federation four-star event, with Vitor Gonçalves Felipe in 2013.

Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands got their title defence underway with a 21-15, 21-18 win over the home pairing of Peng Gao and Yang Li.

Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, who entered Xiamen in top spot off the back of their Commonwealth Games gold medal, also got a winning start as they defeated home pair Sh Coa and J Zeng 21-18, 21-8.

Earlier, Lithuania's Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite, European Snow Volleyball champions, earned their passage to the main draw.

"In Lithuania we don’t have a lot of competitions and our Federation encouraged us to join the snow volleyball because we are a small country and why not?" said Dumbauskaite.

"We have fun.

"First of all it’s slippery on snow and the second thing is shoes and it’s more difficult to run.

"If you are not good in receiving and passing you are done.

"In beach you can run to the whole court, but in the snow, you can only run a couple of steps.

"We played snow volleyball and we won that tour, it was crazy, but after that we had a beach camp in Turkey for two weeks with the Ukrainian team, that’s why we were prepared for this tournament."

Kim Behrens and Sandra Ittlinger from Germany also made it to the main draw after beating Amaranta Navarro Fernandez and Angela Lobato Herrero of Spain 21-16, 21-18.

China’s Wang Fan and Xin Yi Xia are home favourites who often perform well on home sand.