Stare Jablonki, Poland, June 28, 2013 – He may be the most successful German player at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships with one gold medal and two bronzes, but that does not mean that Julius Brink is ready to make any grand announcements about his aims at this year’s tournament.
The reigning Olympic champion is in his first season with new partner Sebastian Fuchs following the retirement of Jonas Reckermann, the man with whom he won a world title at Stavanger 2009 and then Olympic glory at London 2012. While he clearly is a player who knows when to peak, he is refusing to make any major pronouncements about what his aims are for Poland.
“For us the World Championships has come very early in our debut season as a new team,” Brink said. “We want to reach our full potential and that is our priority. If we can do that, I can live with any result.
“There are many things we want to develop by 2016 and we are still in that process. I think we should always play to our potential and it is our goal to reach that aim. Sometimes we have been world class and better than I expected, but in some matches we were below our own expectations. At the moment I see us going through the full range of technical development and I am very excited about our shared path.”
Brink’s season has been hampered by a hip injury and it has meant that he and Fuchs have not been able to develop their partnership in the way they would have preferred. They started with a 17th place finish in the season-opening Fuzhou Open and then reached the quarterfinals at the Shanghai Grand Slam, but at the Corrientes Grand Slam they only finished 25th.
More recently Brink’s injury meant that Fuchs had to play alongside Thomas Kaczmarek at The Hague Grand Slam and Mischa Urbatzka at the Rome Grand Slam. However, Brink believes he will be ready for Stare Jablonki.
“Currently I’m in rehab with it and I’m making good progress,” he said. “I injured it in pre-season training as I had a long-term deformity and there was a serious overload on the thigh as I didn’t rest. The weakest link in the chain was my thigh muscle and unfortunately I tore it in Munster.”
“Sebastian played in the tournaments at The Hague and Rome, which had planned to play together. While it is different from what we planned, over the past few years I’ve become accustomed to the situation.”
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