Julius Brink couldn't hide his delight after he and Jonas Reckermann reached the London 2012 semifinals

London, Great Britain, August 6, 2012 – European champions Jonas Reckermann and Julius Brink continued their impressive form at the London 2012 Olympic Games with a 21-15, 21-19 win over Brazil’s Ricardo Santos and Pedro Cunha at Horse Guard’s Parade.

It gives the German pair the chance to end 2012 with a medal six months after their participation at London 2012 was in doubt after Reckermann was struggling with a shoulder injury. However, the European Championships was their first tournament of the season and winning it gave them the confidence that they could perform to their best at the Olympics.

“I think there were times when I was not too sure if we would be able to play a good Olympics,” Reckermann said. “But we knew at the end of June we could have a good Olympics.

“It (winning the European Championships) gave us a lot of confidence. It was our first tournament after injury and we came out of nowhere and were already competitive. We then knew that whatever happened we’d be ok and that we could do our best.”

In the first set 2009 FIVB world champions Reckermann and Brink started aggressively and kept up their barrage of attacks throughout the set. The Brazilians had no answer to the variety of their play and once the Germans built up the lead they wasted little time winning the set.

The Brazilians improved their performance in the second set and while the teams continued to take points off one another Cunha and Ricardo had no answer to Brink’s anticipation at the back of the court. A Reckermann spike put the Germans on match point and though Brink was wide with his serve, with the second he put the Germans into the last eight when Cunha was unable to defend his spike.

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