Silver debut: Krasilnikov and Stoyanovsky lost in the final of the beach volleyball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics

On the penultimate day of the Tokyo Olympics, Russian fans had the wildest hopes.

The competition schedule was formed in such a way that the biggest medal harvest could be expected on Saturday.

Beach volleyball players Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy could be the first to bring gold.

They reached the final of the men's tournament, where they met with the Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Serum.

Although Russia and Norway are unlikely for many to associate with hot sandy beaches, it is these two countries that have achieved the greatest success in beach volleyball in recent years.

Krasilnikov and Stoyanovsky became world champions in 2019, while Mol and Serum were then bronze medalists.

For the Tokyo Olympics, they were together leading the world rankings.

Krasilnikov and Stoyanovskaya started these competitions hard - in the group stage they played three three-set matches and lost in one of them.

Mole with Serum before the playoffs were defeated by another Russians Konstantin Semyonov and Ilya Leshukov.

But in the knockout tournament, both pairs played with a champion character and did not give a single set to their opponents before the final.

As a result, they provided their countries with the first Olympic medals in beach volleyball.

Both finalists know each other very well and managed to play many matches.

Since Krasilnikov and Stoyanovsky teamed up, they managed to meet with Mol and Serum six times.

The score in their confrontation before the Olympics remained equal.

At the same time, the last meeting, which took place less than a month ago at the tournament in Gstaad, was won by the Russians.

Judging by the statistics shown already at the Olympics itself, the Russian beach-goers had some advantage over their opponents in the final.

Stoyanovsky and Krasilnikov scored 188 points in the attack - even the bronze medalists Ahmed Tizhan and Sheriff Yunuss from Qatar, who played more for the match, did not earn that much.

With 11 aces and 292 hits on the pitch, the Russians also outnumbered the Norwegians.

The reigning world champions also had an advantage in the game.

The only component in which the volleyball players from Norway had no equal at this Olympics was the block.

Mole covered the attacks of opponents 33 times, while Stoyanovsky managed to do this in 24 cases.

The Norwegian played especially well in the last semifinal with the Latvians Martins Plavins and Edgars Tochs - in this one two-set match, Mol scored 10 points on the block, that is, he provided almost a quarter of the winning score.

But when the final started on Saturday morning, Krasilnikov struck Mol with his first attack, then earned another point in attack and spiced up such a cool start with an ace.

The Norwegians themselves made many mistakes, as a result of which the advantage of the Russians increased to four points.

But when the score was 4: 8, Mol took the game into his own hands and scored three points in a row, including two from the block.

For the second jump to the net, he had to apologize - the Norwegian landed on Krasilnikov's ankle.

The Russian could not get up off the sand for a long time and asked for a time-out.

Fortunately, the match was continued, but the initiative passed to the opponents.

Krasilnikov's mistake made it possible to level the score, and then the Norwegians were frankly lucky - after Mol's filing, the ball touched the cable and lay down on the side of the Russians.

The Russians did not play the middle of the game very well, and the Scandinavians already had a four-point lead.

Once Mole complained of pain in his wrist after a block, but this did not prevent him from earning six set points at once.

Stoyanovskiy managed to play one, Krasilnikov with a powerful serve almost brought the Russians back into the game, but still the Norwegians won the first set with a score of 21:17.

Stoyanovskiy did not play at all on the block, and this became especially noticeable at the beginning of the second game, in which the Norwegians tried to quickly build on their success.

But Moll suddenly stopped working in his favorite component.

The teams went on a par for some time, and the Russians even once won a break ball, but then again the two-point advantage passed to the rivals.

At this moment, Stoyanovsky still had a block.

Before the technical break and immediately after, he famously covered Seruma and evened the score - 11:11.

The Russians could have taken the lead in the next rally, but Krasilnikov shot past the block into touch.

The Norwegians immediately remembered their responsibilities - Serum gained two points in attack, Mol added two more on the block.

In the end, this gap became decisive for the whole game. Stoyanovskiy's block-out brought the Norwegians three match points, and then he hit the cable on the serve, and the ball slowly rolled back to the Russian half. The first Olympic medals in beach volleyball for the Norwegians became gold, and for the Russians - silver.