Anders and Christian win the battle of the nerves

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Serve the Sky - Extended

We take you behind-the-scenes of 'Serve the Sky' - touching the clouds 215 feet in the air, two of the world's top teams atop Vienna's iconic Riesenrad Ferris wheel.

They had already beaten the reigning Olympic champions this season so climbing 215 feet (65 meters) above the Vienna skyline was never going to be a problem for Norwegians beach volleyball starlets Anders Mol and Christian Sørum.

The Beachvolley Vikings, who won their first World Tour medal together when winning silver in Itapema last month, showed nerves of steel as they faced Austria’s Clemens Doppler and Alexander Horst in our epic Serve the Sky photoshoot on top of Vienna’s Riesenrad Ferris wheel.

Anders, 20, and 22-year-old Christian took everything in their stride as they watched their rivals on the opposite gondola sweat as Austria’s most famous landmark gave them a perfect bird’s eye view over the city.

“It was quite an experience, a once-in-a-lifetime one,” said Anders once he and his teammate had returned to the ground. “I will never do that again… and I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean who even has an idea like that?

“We couldn’t imagine anything like this. When we were invited and we saw the test photographs with the city in the background, it was an offer we just couldn’t turn down. We’re super glad we came here – I don’t think it could have gone any better.”

Anders (left) and Christian back on the ground after their game of beach volleyball 215 feet high

The confident Scandinavians, currently in 10th place in the world rankings, missed out on a place at last season’s World Championships in Vienna. However the youngsters are now eyeing success when they return to the city for the A1 Major Vienna presented by Swatch in August.

“The Austrian fans are amazing, we had our breakthrough tournament here in Klagenfurt in 2016 and we’re looking forward to come to Vienna,” said Christian, who hadn’t even told his parents he was heading towards the clouds such was the undercover nature of the project.

“We’ve had a good season so far – we’ve already reached one target of winning a medal. If we practise hard and work on our game then we want to aim for a gold medal.”

To get a feeling for the scale of the photoshoot, watch the clip below, which gives the perspective from the players’ point of view.

Beach volleyball in the sky - from the players' perspective 😵 #ViennaMajor @clemensdoppler @alexhorst10 @andybmol @christiansorum @a1telekom @swatch @redbull @seat_at @viennatouristboard

288 Likes, 7 Comments - Beach Volleyball Major Series (@beachmajorseries) on Instagram: "Beach volleyball in the sky - from the players' perspective 😵 #ViennaMajor @clemensdoppler..."