Gstaad, Switzerland, July 14, 2013 – The Gstaad Grand Slam drew to a close on Sunday to bring an end to two weeks of pulsating beach volleyball action; first at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships and then in the Swiss Alps.
A number of teams that stood on the podium in Poland repeated the trick a week later. Women’s world champions Chen Xue and Zhang Xi won a second gold in two weeks, while Ricardo Santos and Alvaro Filho improved on their World Championships silver medals by winning their first golds together.
Their fellow Brazilians Liliane Maestrini and Barbara Seixas meanwhile added silvers to the bronze medals that they had won at the World Championships and Rome Grand Slam.
The men’s world champions Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen were unable to add another medal, but their fourth place was the furthest they had ever been on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.
A few teams also made up for disappointment at the world champs. Brazil’s Pedro Salgado and Bruno Oscar Schmidt and USA’s Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson were both disappointed to miss out on the medals in Stare Jablonki, but made amends in Gstaad by winning silver and bronze respectively.
It was a similar story for Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima, who won their fourth World Tour medal with the bronze.
Players now have a week to rest, recuperate and refocus for the next stop on the World Tour, the Long Beach Grand Slam in Los Angeles from July 22-27.
World champs make it two weeks of joy with gold in Gstaad
FIVB world champions Xue and Zhang Xi won their second gold medal in a week when they defeated Lili and Seixas. The Chinese repeated their victory over the Brazilians from the World Championships semifinals with a 2-0 (21-16, 21-14) win.
“It’s not really sunk it yet,” Xue said. “We’re really happy with how we played today and the crowd really helped us.”
Lili and Seixas were unable to complete a dream run that would have taken them from the qualification rounds to the gold medal. However, they did reach their first final together.
MORERicardo and Alvaro defeat familiar foes for Gstaad gold
Ricardo and Alvaro won their first gold medal as a team when they defeated Pedro and Bruno 2-0 (21-16, 21-18). For Alvaro the gold was his first in FIVB competitions; he also won two silvers at U21 World Championships.
“I can’t believe it right now,” Alvaro said. “In our last competition we reached the final and won the silver, which was my third silver in FIVB competitions, and now it was time for gold, and the gold is different.”
MOREBronze for Talita and Lima
Talita and Lima needed only two sets to beat Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst to win 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) and claim their fourth World Tour medal of the year with bronze; The result also makes up for Talita and Lima’ loss to Ludwig and Walkenhorst in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
“It’s especially good to beat this team because we lost to them last week at the World Championships,” Talita said. “I think today was a different match because, we just thought about doing our best and forgot about yesterday and the semifinal.”
MOREGibb and Patterson complete set with bronze
Gibb and Patterson ensured that they completed their set of World Tour medals with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win against world champions Brouwer and Meeuwsen in the bronze medal match.
In only their first season together the pair now have bronze medals to go alongside the golds that they won at the Shanghai Grand Slam and silver from the Corrientes Grand Slam. They also finished second at the World Cup Finals.
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