Anders Mol and Christian Sorum became the Vi-kings of Hamburg with a brilliant finals display where they beat Chilean cousins, the Grimalt’s and Dutch duo Yorrick De Groot and Leon Luini.
In the Women’s competition there was a commanding victory for Americans Emily
Stockman and World U19 Champion Megan Kraft. They managed to defeat the impressive
Sunniva Helland Hansen and Emilie Olimstad from Norway and the Brazilan’s Larrisa and
Lilli, who took second and third respectively.
Kings
In an extremely high level final that saw the Kings of Miami, Estonia’s Nolvak Tiisar qualify
the last spot putting an impressive score of 23 on the scoreboard against Hagen Smith and
Billy Kolinske from USA and Maciel Bueno and Torres Julien Azaad from Argentina, it would
mean they would meet the European Kings of Utrecht and Olympic Gold Medalists and
World Champions in Norways Anders Mol and Christian Sorum alongside Latvian Legends,
Aleksandrs Samoilvs and Janis Smedins, Cow Bell winners from Gstaad, the Grimalt’s and
young dutch pairing Luini and De Groot combined due to injuries to normal partners
Christian Varenhorst and Stefan Boermans are in the final.
In what was a final to remember the opening round provided to be the last for the
flamboyant Estonians where the Kings of Miami could only put up 2 points, the Grimalt
cousins cousins putting up an impressive 16 points.
The second round provided potentially one of the most dramatic finishes King Of The Court
history as Samolivs and Smedins, the former European Champions from Latvia played
superbly through the competition but missed out on the buzzer as the Grimalt’s made it to
the kings end and scored a decisive point with just four seconds left to pass the Latvians on
the longest stay rule.
The final round was where the Olympic Gold Medalists came alive with some outstanding
plays. Mol/Sorum found potentially their best rhythm of the competition securing 15 points
before the 15 minutes of the clock came to a close, Mol hitting one highlight play landing 2
metres up the sideline. The Vikings prevailed reaching 15, the Grimalt’s 7 and De Groot/Luini finishing on one.
Queens
The Queens of Hamburg Emily Stockman and Megan Kraft were dominant in their pursuit of
the crown in Hamburg as they won every round they participated in.
In the final the Americans wouldn’t have it easy with runners up in Miami Larissa & Lilli
qualifying through the play offs at the expensive of locals hero’s Laura Ludwig and Louisa
Lippman.
In the final, it was two formers queens who were eliminated first round, Brecht Piersma
(Queen of Doha 2022 finals) and Emi Van Driel who was the reigning Queen of Hamburg
having won it last year with Pleun Ypma. They couldn’t quite find the same form as the semi finals, where they qualified comfortably showing great offence variation.
Round 2 proved the end of Polish Pair Jagoda Gruszczynska and Aleksandra Wachowicz but it was a performance that the Polish team can take great pride in having come 5th in the
opening round of the tournament and having to qualify through the play offs for the second.
The jump serve of Wachowicz caused teams problems the whole event and Gruszczynska
finished as one of the best passers.
The final round was contested by Brazilian legends Lilli and Larissa, who somehow found a
way in every round to advance but they would have to settle for third, as the USA dominated the final making it to 15 with over 4 minutes to spare.
The USA seemed to be in control from the start and finish sealing the first crown for Stockman since Hawaii Beach in 2018 and the first win for Kraft.
Norway’s Helland-Hansen and Olimstad played superbly and improved throughout the
competition to finish the final round on 6 points and secure 2nd place and first podium for
them, improving on their result and making the finals last year.
The King Of The Court Series now heads to Luxemburg for the European Finals 27th June –
1st July before the Royal Champions takes place in Rotterdam between 5th-10th September
