Chen Xue and Zhang Xi complete fight back to win world title
Chen Xue and Zhang Xi needed six match points, but lived up to their status as first seeds by lifting their first major title when they beat Britta Buthe and Karla Borger in the women’s gold medal match at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013. The Chinese pair beat the German duo 18-21, 21-17, 21-19 to add the gold medals to the bronzes they won at Rome 2011 and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and become the first Asian side to be crowned world champions. More

Dreams come true for China
“This is my dream come true”, China’s Chen Xue said after winning the first world title for China with Zhang Xi. “This is a very important win for us”, she said. “And the audience gave us a lot of power.” The Chinese had a slow start this week at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013. The 2011 bronze medallists lost one of their pool matches but ended up with the gold medal after all. More

Borger and Buthe inspired by best
Karla Borger and Britta Buthe were disappointed to miss out on winning the women’s gold at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on Saturday, but felt pride in becoming the first European women’s team to win a World Championships medal. The Germans were unable to capitalise on a match point at 14-13 in the tie-break against Chen Xue and Zhang Xi before the Chinese let slip five of their own and then won with the sixth for a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 21-19) victory in one hour, one minute. More

Men’s preview - Ricardo and Alvaro out to dethrone fellow Brazilians
Ricardo Santos and Alvaro Filho will be out to reach the men’s final at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, but will need to knock out defending champions Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego on Sunday to do so. The teams know each other well; Emanuel and Ricardo were partners for a number of years and won the 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Olympic gold. At Rome 2011, Alison and Emanuel beat Ricardo and his then partner Marcio Araujo in the gold medal match. More

Men’s review - Germans aiming to match illustrious compatriots
Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik roared into the men’s semifinals at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013 with a win over Brazil’s Evandro Goncalves and Vitor Felipe on Saturday. The German pair beat the Brazilians 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) to set up a semifinal with the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen on Sunday. More

Borger and Buthe first Europeans to reach women’s World Championship final
Karla Borger and Britta Buthe keep on writing history this week. After becoming the first German team to reach the final four of a women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, they are also the first European team to ever play in the final. So far it has only been US or Brazilian teams that played for the women’s world title, but at the Mazury 2013 edition both USA and Brazil are missing. More

Semenov and Evandro duel crucial to last 16 clash
Konstantin Semenov and Evandro Goncalves, two of the tournament leaders will go head to head in the men’s last 16 at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on Saturday. Semenov has been a powerful presence at the net and leads the way with 11 blocks over 30 sets in the tournament, including nine in his and Yaroslav Koshkarev’s win over The Netherlands’ Daan Spijkers and Christiaan Varenhorst. More

Sunday sees the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013 come to a close with the men’s semifinals – the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen against Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik of Germany at 12:00 followed by an all Brazilian clash between defending champions Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego against Ricardo Alex Costa Santos and Álvaro Morais Filho at 13:00. The bronze medal match will take place at 17:00 before the final at 18:00.

FIVB’s media services includes photos from every match as well as live updates on Twitter #Mazury2013.

For more info contact:
FIVB Press Director Richard Baker
press@fivb.org
0048 601 426 597

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