Rome, Italy, May 17, 2009 - For the first-time in seven tries, Jonas Reckermann finally achieved SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal success over a Brazilian Beach Volleyball team as he and Julius Brink teamed here Sunday evening to capture the US$190,000 Foro Italico Open presented by Skipper.

With their 28-26, 20-22, 15-13 win over the second-seeded Pedro Cunha and Pedro Salgado of Brazil in the 83-minute gold medal match, Reckermann and Brink claimed their first FIVB gold medal in only their second SWATCH start together to share the $30,000 first-place prize as the Italian capital hosted their first-ever international Beach Volleyball event. Reckermann was also named the SWATCH most outstanding player for the Foro Italico Open.

"You just play hard and hope for the best," said the 29-year Reckermann, who has won more SWATCH FIVB World Tour medals (17) than any other German player. "Winning a FIVB event is not easy due to the quality of the field each week, especially with most of the top teams being Brazilians. Any path to a gold medal match usually features a confrontation against a Brazilian team. We defeated two of their top teams the last two nights, so we are very pleased with our accomplishments."

Competing in their second-straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour final together, the Pedros split $21,000 after losing the Shanghai finale to Brazilian rivals Alison Cerutti and Harley Marques.

"We are disappointed," said the 25-year old Cunha. "The Germans played hard as usual. The match came down to who made the fewest mistakes at the end. Jonas is always a factor at the net. The good thing about this tournament was that we secured another top finish which helps us with our rankings to keep a lead over the other Brazilian teams for a Main Draw berth."

In the bronze medal match, the top-seeded Alison and Harley scored a 21-12 and 23-21 win in 42 minutes over third-seeded Brazilian rivals Emanuel and Ricardo. Alison and Harley shared $15,000 for the bronze medal finish with Emanuel and Ricardo splitting $11,200 for fourth-place.

The next men's SWATCH FIVB World Tour event is in Poland (Myslowice, May 26-31). After a three-week break the $1-million SWATCH FIVB World Championships will be held June 25-July 5 in Stavanger, Norway. The women resume international play next week in Asia with back-to-back events in Japan (Osaka, May 19-24) and Korea (Seoul, May 26-31).