World Championships Men 13/06/2011 - 19/06/2011

Rome, Italy, June 19 – Newly crowned world champion Emanuel Rego praised his partner Alison Cerutti for reinvigorating his career and helping him land a second World Championship gold at the FIVB Swatch World Championships Rome 2011 powered by smart.

The pair defeated Emanuel’s former partner Ricardo Santos and Marcio Araujo 21-16, 21-15 in a one-sided affair in which Alison was his usual menacing presence at the net.

“This is my third championship and I want to dedicate it to my friend,” Emanuel said.

“When you play volleyball you need some kind of energy, but when you play beach volleyball you need even more and more energy.

“Here you play eight matches and sometimes when you get old you think eight matches are too much. But with him you think, ‘one more, one more game,’ and he gives me that type of energy that helps you improvise.

Emanuel won the 2003 world title with Ricardo and a year later added the Olympic gold. However, after stepping back from playing he then struggled to return to his best until he linked up with Alison and the unrelenting energy and passion he has on the court.

The 25-year-old Alison was voted the smart player of the tournament for his all action displays at the Foro Italico and now has a world gold medal to sit alongside the silver that he won with Harley Marques Silva in 2009.

“At that time I didn’t think I would (return) because I was changing my life for personal reasons and it was a very tough decision,” Emanuel said. “I spent a year trying to get back into shape and it was tough for me and Alison because we had some ups and downs.

“Two years ago this man besides me had his first moments in a World Championships and he almost tasted the juice of winning a world title. But we lost to the Germans. Two years after that final he has grown as a man and a player.”

For Marcio and Ricardo the silver medal was reward for recovering from a slow start to the tournament that included a loss to the Netherland’s Daan Spijkers and Emiel Boersma in the pool stages.

On the night though they had no answer to the power of Alison and intelligent play of Emanuel.

“We started slowly and then after the pool play we put all our energy into our matches,” Marcio said.

“We built and built and we have made a big step in the race to the Olympics. We wanted to win of course, but you can’t always win.”