Stare Jablonki, Poland, July 6, 2013 – Karla Borger and Britta Büthe were disappointed to miss out on winning the women’s gold at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships on Saturday, but felt pride in becoming the first European women’s team to win a World Championships medal.
The Germans were unable to capitalise on a match point at 14-13 in the tie-break against Chen Xue and Zhang Xi before the Chinese let slip five of their own and then won with the sixth for a 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 21-19) victory in one hour, one minute.
However, it was the first time that the pair, seeded 15th, had ever reached a final.
“It was an incredible match, it was up and down and we had such good rallies and the crowd was freaking out,” Borger said.
“It was so good to play on centre court and it pushed us even more and I think we showed good beach volleyball with good rallies, but China is the winner and we are a little sad though we are happy with second place.”
The pair are enjoying a rich vein of form and at the last FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event before the World Championships, the Rome Grand Slam, they finished fourth and Borger was named player of the tournament.
By reaching the semifinals they had become the first European women’s team to reach the last four and by winning a medal they become the second German side to win a World Championships medal after Jonas Reckermann and Julius Brink won men’s gold in 2009 and bronze in 2011.