As beach volleyball gets back on track, two of the greatest teams globally clash in the beautiful surroundings of Lofoten in Norway's far north, with the world's number one Anders Mol and Christian Sorum 'hosting' Latvia's Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins.
Click below to watch the one-off match on Haukland Beach in the Lofoten Islands as of Thursday, September 3 at 16.00 GMT.
Once home to the Vikings, the Lofoten Islands welcome the Volleyball Vikings as Mol and Sorum take on three-time World Tour season winners Samoilovs and Smedins in this showcase game - a rematch of the 2018 European Beach Volleyball Championships final and a preview of the 2020 edition of the continental competition, coming up later this month.
"It's brilliant to be playing competitively again, against one of the best teams in the world," said Sorum. "It has been a long time since we have played matches, and it is incredible fun as well to be able to play our long time Latvian idols and bring them to beautiful Lofoten."
"It feels great to get going again," added Mol. "It's been a year since we played in a tournament, so to be allowed to get out on the sand and play volleyball again, get back to work - that is going to be so much fun."
This is the first international match between the two highly ranked teams in the 2020 season. It is also Mol and Sorum's first international match since the duo secured third place at the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Finals in Rome.
It follows the gradual re-opening of the season with the 2020 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and comes ahead of the King of the Court 2020 event in Utrecht, Netherlands from September 9 to 12 and the European Championships the week after that in Jurmala, Latvia from September 16 to 20.
The match has come to life as a collaborative project between Beachvolley Vikings, the FIVB, the Norwegian Volleyball Federation, LofotVolley, the Good Net project and Red Bull to celebrate the return of international competitive beach volleyball.
Quick links:
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
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