GERMANS SNARE MEN'S SHANGHAI JINSHAN OPEN BEACH VOLLEYBALL GOLD MEDAL

SWATCH-FIVB World Tour 2005

Luxembourg/Shanghai, China, May 23, 2005. For the first-time ever on the men's SWATCH-FIVB World Tour, a team from Germany defeated a Beach Volleyball tandem from Brazil in a gold medal match as third-seeded Christoph Dieckmann and Andreas Scheuerpflug won title here Sunday at the US$400'000 China Shanghai Jinshan Open.

With the 21-18, 15-21 and 16-14 win in 56 minutes over top-seeded Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil, Dieckmann and Scheuerpflug scored Germany's first-ever gold medal win over a team from that South American country in seven title matches.

"This is special for us", said the 37-year Scheuerpflug, who plans on retiring from the international tour after this season. "We beat the top team in the world, the Olympic champions from Athens. What a great feeling!"
The Germans claimed the $32'000 first-place prize in capturing their first-ever gold medal together on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour in 24 international starts. For the 29-year old Dieckmann, it was his family's third SWATCH-FIVB title as his twin brother Markus captured two titles with Jonas Reckermann last season in Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
"Wow", said Dieckmann, who was named the event's SWATCH most valuable player. "We did not play well last week in the European Confederation event in Turkey. We improved a lot since last week. Our service game was the big difference. Andreas got a key ace in the third set to give us the advantage. It is a great achievement for my family for my brother and me to be gold medallists on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour."

Dieckmann and Scheuerpflug posted their best-ever finish on the SWATCH-FIVB World Tour after placing third together in last season in Klagenfurt, Austria. Emanuel and Ricardo, the Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallists and 2003 SWATCH-FIVB World Champions, won the first third international meetings with the Germans, including a 17-21, 21-16 and 15-11 victory in the 2004 semi-finals at Klagenfurt.
"We have been pointing to this tournament to help launch our drive to defending our world championship," said Emanuel as the Brazilians figure to be the top-seeded team entering next month's (June 21-26) SWATCH-FIVB World Championships in Berlin. "After playing mostly against Brazilians since the Athens Games, it was great to face teams from other countries. The Germans played very well today."

Switzerland captured the bronze medal as sixth-seeded Markus Egger and Martin Laciga of Switzerland posted a 16-21, 24-22 and 15-10 win in 63 minutes over fourth-seeded Benjamin Insfran and Harley Marques of Brazil. Egger and Laciga split $16'000 for third-place while the Brazilians split $12'000.

The women compete in Osaka, Japan, next week while the men have a week off before resuming play with the first of nine-straight weeks of competition in Europe starting with a stop in Zagreb, Croatia June 8-12. The next mixed gender event is June 15-19 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

For further results and pictures please view www.fivb.org