2011 FIVB Beach World Champs

One of the most anticipated beach volleyball events this year!

Brazil dominated the tournament this year in Rome, Italy by winning both events. Emanuel and Alison dominated the gold medal match against Brazilian compatriots Ricardo and Marcio Araujo while #1 seeded Larisa and Juliana won an epic final match against 3 time world champions Misty May and Kerri Walsh from the USA.

On a side note, 2009 World Champions Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann from Germany finished the tournament with a bronze medal while Jen Kessy and April Ross finished 5th. 2008 Olympic gold medalists and #1 seeded Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser ended the biennial tournament by finishing 9th.

In case you didn’t know, Phil injured his ankle in Beijing the weekend before the World Champs but he still decided to compete. What a trooper!

Some fans thought that his injured ankle could’ve been the main culprit why Phil and Todd failed to win a spot in the semis BUT we learned that Phil aka The Thin Beast had a bad case of food poisoning.

Ayayi!

Watch Phil and Todd’s epic match against the 2009 World Champions.

Throughout the tournament, we noticed the really fierce dancers who entertained the crowd and possibly distracted the players (Just Kidding!) Check out some of our favorite hair raising pics:

In case you didn’t know, former indoor star player from Italy Matteo Martino (remember him?) competed in his first Beach World Championship and surprisingly finished 9th. We thought they did really well. Give Matteo and his partner Nicolai more time and they can become one of the world’s top teams.

In case you don’t remember, here’s another pic:

Work and train harder BBs!

To further support our claim that the Italian duo has what it takes to become a stronger team, we found their full match video against Spain’s Herrera-Gavira. Watch this!

The FIVB website has lots of great shots from the tournament and below is a collage of some of our favorites.

The matches in the Final Round were very exciting and brought a lot of thrills to beach volleyball fans from all over the world. This is your chance to watch the winning moments of the world’s best teams.

Men’s Gold Medal Match:

“This is my third championship and I want to dedicate it to my friend. When you play volleyball you need some kind of energy, but when you play beach volleyball you need even more and more energy.” -Emanuel

Men’s Bronze Medal Match

“Even if we have weaknesses we try to work together. I think we showed that on the court and that is what makes me proud.” -Brink

Men’s Results:Please click image to enlarge.

Women’s Gold Medal Match:

“My hat goes off to Julianna and Larissa for their great win in the World Championships. Although they nearly lost it in the final set it took a lot for them to dig deep and close the four point gap. This was a sign of how much self belief they have right now. Most teams would’ve thrown in the towel at that point, especially against the caliber of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, but the Brazilians just wouldn’t give up.” 2000 Olympic Gold medalist Kerri Pottharst on Juliana and Larissa’s victory.

Women’s Bronze Medal Match

“We’re very excited. Yesterday we lost and we didn’t play well but we came back and we played better than yesterday and we played well.” -Zhang

Women’s Results: Please click image to enlarge.

For complete information about the Men’s Event, click THIS.

For complete information about the Women’s Event, click THIS.

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the teams who competed and entertained thousands of fans from all over the world.

See ya in 2013!

(images: FIVB)