Brazil's Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos won bronze medals in the beach volleyball tournament at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.
![Ricardo Santos (L) of Brazil spikes the ball over Renato Gomes of Georgia during their beach volleyball bronze medal match at the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 22, 2008. Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego of Brazil won the match and grabbed the bronze medal of the event. [Sadat/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080822/0019b93bd68d0a186e5501.jpg "Ricardo Santos (L) of Brazil spikes the ball over Renato Gomes of Georgia during their beach volleyball bronze medal match at the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 22, 2008. Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego of Brazil won the match and grabbed the bronze medal of the event. [Sadat/Xinhua]") |
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Ricardo Santos (L) of Brazil spikes the ball over Renato Gomes of Georgia during their beach volleyball bronze medal match at the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 22, 2008. Ricardo Santos/Emanuel Rego of Brazil won the match and grabbed the bronze medal of the event. [Sadat/Xinhua]
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The Brazilian duo controlled the rhythm of the match in most of time, breezing past the Gerogians 21-15 and 21-10.
"I'm happy with the bronze medal. We played very well and our shape has been going up as the Beijing Games go on," said Emanuel after the match.
The Brazilian duo was gold medalists at the Athens Games. In the semifinals, they were beaten by their fellow Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luiz Magalhaes.
"We know each other very well, and we knew the match would be very difficult," said Georgia's Gomes after the match.
The scoreboard told the distance between them and the Brazilian duo, he added.
The Georgian pair, both of Brazilian origin, unexpectedly downed higher-ranked Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.