Saturday was all about those four semifinals. And rain. I thought it was Melbourne which was famous for all seasons in one day, but Adelaide has been weird with the weather. When we arrived, it was sunny, but icy cold winds and as soon as the sun set, it got freezing! Bring our puffer jackets was definitely a good idea. Then comes Saturday, warmer than previous days, but wet. Different kind of wet from QLD though. Much lighter. The drops just seem to be heavy back home. And spoiler for Sunday (since this is written after the event), Adelaide, South Australia, offered 30C and clear blue skies. We got to experience it all during that week.
Anyway, enough about weather, back to the main topic of this long blog series. Beach volleyball!
On our way back from brekkie, just as we were about to cross the street to our hotel, I spotted someone on the other side of the road, about to cross over to our side. I am pretty sure he saw me spot him, and it was super obvious when we didn’t cross but waited.
A quiet “Heja Norge” when he came close caught his attention and I hope that he got happy when he got recognition from his Scandinavian neighbors. Heartbroken that they lost too early, but we had a very nice conversation with him and his girlfriend. They are normal people. And both of them were so lovely!
First SF game of the day was Sweden (Hölting Nilsson/Andersson) vs France (Rotar/Gauthier-Rat).
Slightly nervous coming to this game considering these young French guys managed to beat Åhman/Hellvig in pool play. But, it turned out that there was nothing to be nervous about. This game was very enjoyable from a Swedes perspective, it looked so easy when they were playing.
This was also when we had premium seats, so we had to split up from the rest of the cheerleading squad. But cheering from different locations in the stadium, might have given the impression that there were more of us, haha!
21-18, 21-17 was the final score and we had one Swedish team playing for gold in the beach volleyball world champion ship in Adelaide on Sunday. Unbelievable!
While waiting for the next highlight of the day, we watched the Latvian women beat Brazil in a very impressive first semi final. Men’s and women’s beach volleyball is two completely separate sports. Gameplay is very different. It is unfortunate we don’t have any Swedish women’s teams on this level. There just isn’t enough time in this hectic society to watch everything, even if I would love to.
After a late lunch/early dinner before the evening session, it was finally time for the second Swedish semifinal of the day: Sweden (Åhman/Hellvig) vs Germany (Ehlers/Wickler). A rematch of the Paris 2024 Olympic final. I was excited for this game, but not nervous. Don’t get me wrong, Ehlers/Wickler are so good. Just not against Åhman/Hellvig. Of 14 games where they’ve met previously, Sweden has won 13 of those and the one Germany won, a pool game in 2023, was of no major importance. Every time it mattered, Sweden won. Which they did this time around as well! And what a game. Should it even be possible to win a semifinal in the World Champs with 21-10, 21-14? I don’t think so.
The older guys have made the same journey this World Championship as they did in the Olympics last year. Starting shakingly with two pool losses, but then stepping up their game and making it to the final! And the most incredible thing? Which I still find very hard to believe, we had a complete blue and yellow final. In my new home country of Australia. UNREAL!
Bemm 