China's Tian Jia and Wang Jie captured their first international beach volleyball gold medal in the World Beach Volleyball Tour in Austrian south city Klagenfurt on Saturday, local TV ORF said.

 

With their 20-22, 21-16 and 15-11 win in 56 minutes over top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, the fifth-seeded Tian and Wang became the second team from China to capture a SWATCH-FIVB World Tour gold medal this season.

 

After the top-seeded Silva and Franca got the first set with their experienced cooperation, Tian and Wang improved the defense and played more aggressive while their rivals played a little impatiently. Tian and Wang since then controlled the tempo in the match and kept the advantage to the end.

 

In a quarterfinal, China's men players Wu Penggen and Xu Linyin were defeated by their Brazilian opponents 2-1.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2006)