The Olympic champions have won every possible trophy in their careers apart from the elusive World Championships crown.

They came from behind against Austria's Robin Seidl and Philipp Waller in the men's tournament at the Foro Italico in the Italian capital.

Seidl and Waller looked like they could cause an upset as they got off to a brilliant start, taking the first game 21-18.

However, the Norwegians showed why they are favourites and fought back to win the remaining games 21-18 and 15-9.

Sørum was deadly on offense as he recorded 22 points, the most on either side, while Mol's 12 attack points, two block points and four serve points complimented his team-mate's dominance.

In the women's draw, Duda Lisboa and Ana Patrícia took on Carol Solberg Salgado and Barbara Seixas de Freitas in a hotly anticipated all-Brazilian clash.

In the end, a dominant performance from Lisboa and Patrícia saw them cruise through to the next round.

Despite being outscored on attacking points, the winners were on top of the block serve and opponent error stats as they saw out a straight games 21-16, 21-17 win.

They face a tough tie in their next fixture against Canada's Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes.

The gold medallists from the Beach Volleyball Pro Tour in Jūrmala in Latvia came from behind against Talita Antunes and Rebecca Cavalcanti of Brazil to win 16-21, 21-11, 18-16.

The semi-finalists are due to be decided tomorrow as all of the men's and women's quarter-finals are scheduled to take place, starting from 10am CET.