Last week’s final of the Finnish Paf Open in Aland could not match the expectations of the spectators all over the world. Knee injury of Todd Rogers prevented the American couple from fighting for a new title in their otherwise massive collection.
The Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Benjamin Insfran reestablished their partnership after seven years due to Ricardo-Marcio’s split earlier this summer. The experienced South Americans, whose total age is 76, entered the tournament as the number 5 seed, but showed that they deserve a place in the final by defeating the World Tour leaders Emanuel-Alison on Saturday evening.
Unfortunately, the event in Aland finished a bit earlier than expected. On Sunday, in the gold medal match facing the title chasers Dalhausser-Rogers and Marcio-Benjamin, everything was going fine until the very end of the first set when Todd Rogers suffered a knee injury which caused a time-out in favor of the Americans. Despite Rogers’ desire to finish the game it was obvious he was not in a proper physical condition anymore and so, with the actual score being tied at 21, the victory was decided to Brazil.
In the bronze medal game Emanuel-Alison defeated the brave Poles Fijalek-Prudel in three sets. This success secured the World Tour 2011 title for the reigning World champions Brazil as according to the official ranking rules released by FIVB only the best 10 results during the year (among Open and Grand Slam events and the World Championship) are taken into consideration when the final season ranking is determined. This rule gives a comfortable lead for the Brazilians over Dalhausser-Rogers, who, unfortunately, did not enjoy a truly healthy period in 2011 as both players have to recover from an ankle and a knee injury respectively.
There are two remaining stops on the beach volleyball map before the season is closed. After the big question was finally answered in Finland and Emanuel-Alison can now celebrate their newly acquired crown it is time for the last sets of medals to be distributed.
