Anders Mol and Christian Sørum celebrate winning Olympic gold in men's beach volleyball ©Getty Images

Anders Mol and Christian Sørum celebrated men's Olympic beach volleyball gold after downing ROC world champions Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy in straight sets in the final.

The Norwegians triumphed 21-17, 21-18 at Shiokaze Park and ended the knock-out phase of the tournament without dropping a set.

Mol and Sørum, the World Championship bronze medallists, arrived in Tokyo in good form after winning two of the three Cancun hub tournaments held by the International Volleyball Federation in April.

They lost a match in the pool stage to another ROC pair - Konstantin Semenov and Ilya Leshukov - but qualified for the knock-out phase as runners-up.

Their path to the final included taking revenge on Semenov and Leshukov in the quarter-finals, before a win over Latvia's Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs in the last four.

Anders Mol and Christian Sørum did not drop a set during the knock-out rounds ©Getty Images
Anders Mol and Christian Sørum did not drop a set during the knock-out rounds ©Getty Images

Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskiy, who won gold the last time the World Championships were held in 2019, had to make do with silver after also not dropping a set during the knock-out matches.

Norway had never won Olympic gold in beach volleyball and the country's champions, with an average age of 24, are the youngest pair to claim the men's title.

"We know this team very well, and we want to serve to Krasilnikov because we have been playing well against him before," said Sørum. 

"They served strong in the beginning, they always do. 

"But we knew that if we found a rhythm with our side out we would get some points in the block.

“It was just an amazing feeling to play at this high level in the Olympic final."

Mol's mother Merita Berntsen finished ninth in beach volleyball at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, and retired when she gave birth to him.

"My mum thought it was going to be really hard to travel around with two kids, because my brother was born in 1994," Mol said. 

"She had me and then quit. 

"I always dreamed of beating my mum in the Olympics. 

"She got a ninth.

"I was actually really happy when we made it to the quarter-finals because we became historical by achieving (at least) a fifth place.

"It has been a journey for a long time and our parents and families are very proud of us right now."

Qatar won bronze as Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan claimed a 21-12, 21-18 win over Plavins and Tocs.