Germany stun Brazil to win beach volleyball

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images Europe

Germany stunned world champions Brazil to take gold in the beach volleyball - the first Europeans to become Olympic champions.

Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won by two sets to one, 23-21 16-21 16-14, but it took them five match points to settle the contest.
It meant there was no fairytale for Brazil's Emanuel Rego - the 39-year-old who won gold in 2004 and bronze in 2008 was competing in his fifth Olympics - and Alison Cerutti.
Reckermann said: "It's unbelieveable - they have been the best team for the last few years and Emanuel is a living legend but we knew we had a chance."
Rego will be 43 when the 2016 Games take place in Rio de Janeiro, in his home country Brazil, but he said he may target a home Games.
Rego said: "What a final... it was intense and fantastic in front of 15,000 people. It was a good battle and the Germans did really well and I think if we had won the first set it would have gone our way.
"It's difficult to say what will happen for 2016 but this silver tastes very, very good."
Latvian pair Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins took bronze - their country's first medal of London 2012 - in a surprise 2-1 victory over Holland's Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schull.
Plavins said: "It was our dream to win a medal in the Olympics and now we have done it and can't really believe we did it.
"No-one believed before we came here that we were going to win a medal."