Brazilians Harley Marques and Pedro Salgado won their fourth SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medal to spoil China’s first-ever appearance in a men’s international Beach Volleyball finale to capture the US$350,000 Adelaide Australia Open on Glenelg Beach here Sunday afternoon.
Before a near-capacity crowd of 3,000 fans on the Moseley Square centre court, the fourth-seeded Harley and Salgado scored a 23-21 and 21-12 win in 39 minutes over seventh-seeded Penggen Wu and Linyin Xu of China to share the $28,000 first-place prize in the season opening event on the 2008 SWATCH-FIVB World Tour calendar.
“The Chinese played great, but we were just a little better today,” said the 22-year old Salgado, who celebrated his birthday Thursday. “I don’t know if our experience in finals helped us, but anytime you play for first-place in any activity you expect to produce your best. This was a big win for us.”
For the second-straight season, Harley and Salgado have captured a SWATCH opener as the Brazilians won the first event in 2007 at Shanghai, China. Before finishing ninth in the 2007 season finale in Fortaleza, Brazil, Harley and Salgado captured FIVB titles in Finland and Russia.
“In addition to winning all of our matches, this was a great weekend for us to make up some ground on Marcio Araujo and Fabio in a quest for a berth in the Olympics in Beijing,” the 33-year Harley added after winning his seventh SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medal in 11 seasons on the international tour. Harley was also named the SWATCH most outstanding player for the event.
With 10 more events left before the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympic qualifying process July 20, Harley and Salgado now trail Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes by 400 points after starting the weekend 600 points behind their compatriots for a possible second Summer Games berth behind Emanuel Rego and Ricardo.
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Adelaide Australia Open Volleyball Mar 25-30
One American Team Against Three Brazilians Pairs For Adelaide Gold
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