Posted at 6:36 a.m., Sunday, July 29, 2007
Beach volleyball: U.S. teams sweep world titles
Advertiser Staff
GSTAAD, Switzerland — Fourth-seeded Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser defeated Russians Dmitri Barsuk and Igor Kolodinski 21-16, 21-14 today to give the United States a gold medal sweep at the beach volleyball world championships."It's a tremendous feeling to win this title in front of my parents and relatives," said the 27-year old Dalhausser, who lived in Switzerland for a year before moving to the United States with his Swiss mother and German father.
The U.S. had won the women's gold Saturday, when Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh beat China's Jia Tian and Jie Wang 21-16, 21-10 to win an unprecedented third consecutive world title.
Australia's 16th-seeded Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack upset Brazil's top-ranked and Olympic champions, Emanuel and Ricardo, 21-17, 21-19 to take the men's bronze.
It marked the first major win of the season for Dalhausser and Rogers, who pocketed $81,906.
Dalhausser and Rogers also collected 1,000 points toward qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. A duo's best eight finishes on the World Tour until July 20, 2008, will count toward qualifying for the 24-team Olympic field.
Brazil captured both the men's and women's titles at the 1997 and 1999 worlds.
