The Olympic silver medalists Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler missed out on the bronze medal at the Beach Volleyball World Cup in Australia.
The Hamburg duo had to admit defeat to the French Arnaud Gauthier-Rat/Téo Rotar 0-2 (15:21, 15:21) in the small final on Sunday. As with the previous World Cup in 2023, the German teams will come away empty-handed.
One day after their bitter semi-final defeat against the Olympic champions David Ahman/Jonatan Hellvig, Ehlers/Wickler were unable to reward themselves for an overall good tournament, during which they had beaten, among others, the world number one Anders Mol/Christian Sörum from Norway and the Czech defending champions Ondrej Perusic/David Pigner.
Wickler won the last German World Cup men’s medal to date alongside Julius Thole in 2019, when he won silver at the home game in Hamburg.
Against Gauthier-Rat/Rotar, who had ensured the elimination of German champions Lukas Pfretzschner and Sven Winter in the quarter-finals, Ehlers/Wickler got off to a shaky start to the game and couldn’t find any real grip in the first set. The German duo didn’t come into play in the second half either.