Stare Jablonki, Poland, June 30, 2013 - Olympic champion Julius Brink has pulled out of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, which starts on Monday, due to a thigh injury, which had already ruled him out of The Hague and Rome Grand Slams.
"I very much regret not being able to play, but it is still too early and the risk too great, "Brink said. Earlier this week in an interview Brink sounded optimistic: "At present I’m undergoing rehab, I am making good progress." However after a training session on Sunday morning, the German Volleyball Federation informed FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013 organisers that Brink can’t participate in Stare Jablonki. "In consultation with doctors and physiotherapists my thighs could not heal 100% strength. I can’t achieve a fully timed release, and the risk that the injury sets off a second time and am scheduled for the rest of the season out of action is too great."
Brink’s partner Sebastian Fuchs will now play with Thomas Kaczmarek. Fuchs and Kaczmarek have completed the pre-season together, achieving 17th place in the The Hague Grand Slam.
The most successful German and European World Championship participant of all time now won’t be able to add to his impressive medal collection which has seen the 30-year-old win a bronze medal in Berlin in 2005 with Kjell Schneider - the first German World Championship medal in beach volleyball – before four years later succeeding to the sensational world title in Stavanger, Norway with Jonas Reckermann. Brink and Reckermann followed it up with a bronze medal in Rome in 2011.
Fuch and Kaczmarek join seven other German teams who will aim to win Germany’s fourth World Championship medal. Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler, Karla Borger/Britta Büthe, Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst, Victoria Bieneck/Julia Großner, Jonathan Erdmann/Kay Matysik, Sebastian Dollinger/Stefan Windscheif and Markus Böckermann/Mischa Urbatzka are the other German pairings.