Two Swedish men’s pairs will contest for the gold medal in the final match of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship in Adelaide.
Paris Olympic champions David Ahman-Jonatan Hellvig will take on Jacob Holting Nilsson-Elmer Andersson in the final, only the second country in history to have two teams playing against one another in a World Championship final.
Only Brazil has achieved such an exploit in the past, once in each gender.
In the semifinal, third-seeded Ahman-Hellvig defeated 14th-seeded Germans Nils Ehlers-Clemens Wickler, who will get another chance to earn a spot on the podium as they take on France’s Teo Rotar-Arnaud Gauthier-Rat in the bronze medal playoff.
Not only was the semifinal a remake of last year’s Paris 2024 Olympic final, but it also produced almost the same result, 21-10, 21-14 the way of Ahman-Hellvig, with Ehlers-Wickler scoring just a point more in the second set than they did at the Games in France.
With this win, the Swedish jump-setters became the first men’s duo in history to qualify for two consecutive World Championship finals.
Ahman topped the scoring chart with two aces and 16 spike kills, while Hellvig put up four kill blocks towards a 16-point match tally. Ehlers also delivered 16 points for Germany, including two blocks and an ace.
“It feels amazing! We went into this championship not really knowing how good we were, because we’d had some injury problems this season and hadn’t practiced that much, but I think we played better and better in every match at this tournament, so we are super happy that we made it to the final,” said Hellvig.
“It’s just incredible!” Ahman commented on the fact that an all-Swedish final shaped up. “We never thought that before this tournament. Sweden is not really famous for beach volleyball, so it’s just incredible that we have two teams in the final of the World Champs.”
Earlier, Jacob Nilsson-Andersson made history in their first appearance at the Beach Volleyball World Championship, becoming the youngest team ever to earn the right to play for the tournament’s gold medals.
Aged 20 and 19 respectively, they delivered a dominant performance, taking down French Rotar-Gauthier-Rat 21-18, 21-17.
Nilsson-Andersson’s success in the biggest event of the sport in 2025 is just a reflection of the incredible season the young Swedes are having at the international level. One of the youngest duos to compete at the highest level of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, they have been able to gradually raise their standards throughout the season, having won a Futures event in their home sand Malmö in June, triumphed in a Challenge tournament in Baden in August and taken gold at the Cape Town Elite last month.
While Ahman-Hellvig took silver at the previous World Championship in Mexico two years ago, for their younger compatriots Nilsson-Andersson, this is the first time playing in the premier competition.
The two teams practice together with the same coaching staff, but they have already met three times in international competition, all earlier in 2025.
Ahman-Hellvig shut out their compatriots in the first two encounters – at the Warmia Mazury Challenge and at the Montreal Elite, while Nilsson-Andersson pulled off a three-set win the last time they met, in the Montreal Elite semifinals.
“It’s been a crazy season for us,” Andersson reflected after the semifinal. “We played many Beach Pro Tour tournaments, and our main goal was to qualify for the World Championship. Coming here, everything was a bonus for us and we’re just enjoying everything we do in Adelaide.”
Hölting Nilsson’s excellent all-around performance made a difference for the Swedish team in the semifinals, as the 20-year-old registered 22 points, with 13 kills, six blocks and three aces. Andersson scored with ten kills and an ace, and also produced 12 digs.
Meanwhile, Latvia’s Tina Graudina-Anastasija Samoilova will face USA’s Kristen Nuss-Taryn Brasher in the women’s final, both chasing their first title.
Second-seeded Carol Solberg-Rebecca Cavalcanti will battle for their spot on the podium in an all-Brazilian bronze medal playoff against top-seeded Thamela Coradello-Victoria Lopes.
The American pair, however, has already been on a World Championship podium, at the previous edition Tlaxcala 2023, when they claimed bronze.
The two teams have met six times on the Beach Pro Tour, four of them at the Gstaad Elite16 – once in 2022, twice in 2024 and once in 2025. They also met at the 2022 Beach Pro Tour Finals in Doha and at the 2023 Ostrava Elite16. Nuss & Brasher won the last five of these encounters in straight sets, while Tina & Anastasija beat the Americans in three sets in a Gstaad 2022 quarterfinal.
Graudina-Samoilova booked the first spot in the final with an emphatic shutout of the world’s number one ranked team, top-seeded Brazilians Coradello-Lopes, and secured Latvia’s first ever World Championship podium in either gender.
Inspired by a loyal Latvian crowd on the stands around center court in Adelaide, Tina-Anastasija dominated the game and celebrated a 21-10, 21-16 victory over Thamela- Victoria.
Tina raised a total of six kill blocks and added an ace towards a match-high 20 points. Anastasija also delivered an ace and tallied a total of 11 points. Thamela led the Brazilian team with 12 points, also including an ace.
“Those who follow us know that we’ve been in a lot of semifinals recently and have gone fourth place. So, this match was perhaps even the most important match of this whole tournament so far and we came in mentally strong,” said Tina.
“I have a great team! I am so grateful for our journey with Tina. We are so lucky!” Anastasija added. “We are so hard-working and we have the back-up of the whole Latvian family – everyone, who cheers for us around the world! You cannot imagine! We are so grateful for everyone and also so grateful for ourselves, that we have each other.”
In the second semifinal, the third-seeded Americans Nus & Brasher mounted a solid comeback from a set down against Carol-Rebecca to earn a 19-21, 24-22, 15-6 victory and qualify for their first World Championship final.
The unforced errors made the big difference in this match. The North Americans made only five of those against as many as 23 from the South Americans. Brasher led the US duo with a team-high 19 points, including four kill blocks and an ace, while Nuss added another 16 points, all in swings.
With so few mistakes from their opponents, the Brazilians were made to work for their points and both of them reached 20+, outscoring Nuss-Brasher. With five aces and two kill blocks to her name, Carol topped the chart with a total of 23 points. Rebecca delivered two aces towards a 21-point match tally.
“Oh, my goodness! So much goes into it! A huge credit to our entire USA support staff this entire week! Also, huge shoutout to Drew Hamilton, our coach back at home! We’d not be here without him and I hope he’s ready for some Waffle House, when we get back home,” said Nuss.
“Australia means so much to us. It was the first time that we got the opportunity to play together internationally, and it was so important to both of us. It’s probably one of my favorite memories,” added Brasher, referring to their 2022 Coolangatta Futures gold upon their Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour debut.
