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| Tian Jia (Left) and Wang Jie celebrate their
first gold medal. [FIVB photo] |
China's Tian Jia
and Wang Jie captured their first international beach volleyball gold medal
Saturday before a jam-packed Lake Woerthersee center court crowd of nearly 8,
000 fans in Klagenfurt, Austria.
The Chinese pair pushed away top seeds Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa
Franca of Brazil 20-22, 21-16 and 15-11 in 56 minutes to become the second team
from China to capture a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medal this season.
En route to sharing the top spot on the podium for the 580,000-US dollar A1
Grand Slam and the 42,300-dollar first-place prize, the 25-year old Tian Jia and
the 21-year old Wang Jie defeated reigning Olympic and World champions Misty
May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States Friday to qualify for the
"final four" matches before downing the Brazilians, the top-ranked team on the
2006 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour.
"This is great," said Tian Jia, a two-time Chinese beach volleyball Olympian.
"Of my three SWATCH gold medal wins, this is the best by far. Outside of winning
an Olympic or World championship title, capturing a grand slam gold medal is
special.
This is a great venue and I am glad to be a part of the ceremonies as member
of the winning team."
(Source: Xinhua/CRIENGLISH.com)