World Beach Volleyball Championships preview

Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross
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Three-time Olympic champion Kerri Walsh Jennings said last week her recovery from a dislocated right shoulder went so well that suffering the injury May 27 felt like a lifetime ago, but a Brazilian pair has earned the favorite label going into the World Championships.

Walsh Jennings is set to return to competition for the first time in a month at the World Championships in the Netherlands on Saturday. She and partner Olympic silver medalist April Ross open pool play against a Dutch pair at 3 p.m. ET. The knockout rounds start Tuesday, with the medal matches July 3-4.

It’s the biggest tournament for both Walsh Jennings and Ross since the London Olympics, when they were on opposite sides of the net in an all-American gold-medal match.

Walsh Jennings’ partner at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics, Misty May-Treanor, retired following London. Walsh Jennings planted the seed to continue on with Ross as her new partner immediately after the Olympic final, and they teamed up full time after Walsh Jennings gave birth to daughter Scout on April 6, 2013.

Walsh Jennings, a 36-year-old mother of three, and Ross were strong but inconsistent in their first full season together in 2014. They won four FIVB World Tour events, tying Brazilians Larissa and Talita for the most by one pair.

This season has not gone according to plan. Walsh Jennings and Ross were beaten by Larissa and Talita in a one-set exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in February, the pairs’ first meeting.

Walsh Jennings and Ross finished third in their first international event in China in April, followed the next month by Walsh Jennings’ injury in Moscow that forced the pair to withdraw.

Complete World Championships men’s, women’s schedules

Walsh Jennings suffered the injury diving for a ball.

“The athlete hit a cut shot, I dug it, laid-out flat, something I’ve done a million times before,” Walsh Jennings, who had four shoulder surgeries but did not require an operation for this injury, said last week. “It was just a fluke. The ground is really hard, and it happens really fast. I think I kind of misjudged the level of everything.

“It definitely hurt. It was just more a really raw feeling. The pain was manageable. I knew I didn’t tear anything.”

“My doctor just said I got the crap kicked out of my shoulder.”

Meanwhile, the Brazilians Larissa and Talita have just about picked up from where they left off in 2014, when they paired midway through the year and won their final four FIVB World Tour events.

This season, Larissa and Talita won their first two FIVB World Tour starts before missing a Norway event due to Talita’s leg injury and being upset in the round of 16 in St. Petersburg, Fla., last week.

At the World Championships, Larissa and Talita are seeded ahead of Walsh Jennings and Ross. Walsh Jennings said the Brazilians deserve to be the favorites.

“They’re very beatable” she said. “They’re very similar to a lot of teams on tour, but their consistency is what separates them. They’re a stereotypical Brazilian beach volleyball team — two very good athletes who come together and complement each other very well.

“My money’s on us, all things being equal, but we have to prove ourselves. We’re unproven. That’s something that drove us crazy last year, the consistency.”

Walsh Jennings won three straight World Championships with May-Treanor in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but she didn’t start putting much stock into the prestige of the event until 2011.

That’s when Larissa and her former partner, Juliana, beat Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor in the Poland final and celebrated with screams and group hugs and by autographing video cameras like tennis players.

“Over the top,” May-Treanor called it.

“That pissed me off,” Walsh Jennings said of that defeat last week.

Walsh Jennings missed the 2013 World Championships, where Ross played with Whitney Pavlik and finished fourth. China’s Xue Chen and Zhang Xi took the title. Zhang hasn’t played since 2013, and Xue isn’t entered in the Netherlands.

The top men’s seed at Worlds was to be Americans Phil Dalhausser (2008 Olympic champion) and Sean Rosenthal (two-time Olympian), but they’re out due to Dalhausser’s muscle tear, also suffered in Moscow, and Rosenthal’s knee tendonitis, according to the FIVB.

Their absence opens up an already deep field of pairs that could take gold. Pairs from 10 different nations won FIVB World Tour events last season, and the first six events this year have been won by pairs from six different nations.

The U.S. pairs at Worlds are former minor-league pitcher and 7-footer Ryan Doherty and John Mayer, 42-year-old 1996 and 2000 indoor volleyball Olympian John Hyden and Tri Bourne, Rosenthal’s 2008 and 2012 Olympic partner Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson and Nick Lucena and Theo Brunner.

Gibb and Patterson won the FIVB World Tour Grand Slam in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Saturday, their second FIVB World Tour title since pairing for the start of the 2013 season.

The World Championships field also includes defending champions from host Netherlands — Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen — and Brazilian legends Ricardo and Emanuel, at least one of whom earned a medal at each of the last four Olympics, together or separately.

In 2003 and 2007, both men’s and women’s World champions went on to take Olympic gold the following year. In 2011, the World champions, both from Brazil, did not capture Olympic titles the next year.

Five Olympic questions with Steve Nash

Shoma Uno leads Ilia Malinin at figure skating worlds; Japan wins first pairs’ title

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Defending champion Shoma Uno of Japan bettered American Ilia Malinin in the world figure skating championships short program.

Malinin, 18, plans one of, if not the most difficult free skate in history on Saturday in a bid to overtake Uno to become the youngest world champion in 25 years.

Uno, who has reportedly dealt with an ankle injury, skated clean Thursday save doubling the back end of a planned quadruple toe loop-triple toe combination. He totaled 104.63 points, overtaking Malinin by 4.25 on home ice in Saitama.

“I was able to do better jumps compared to my practice in my short program today, and even if I am not in my best condition, I want to focus on other details other than my jumps as well,” Uno said, according to the International Skating Union.

Malinin, who this season landed the first quadruple Axel in competition, had a clean short after struggling with the program all autumn. He landed a quadruple Lutz-triple toe combo, a quad toe and a triple Axel. Uno beat him on artistic component scores.

“I was really in the moment,” said Malinin, who plans a record-tying six quads in Saturday’s free skate after attempting five at previous competitions this season. “I was really feeling my performance out there.”

FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule

The quad Axel is not allowed in the short program, but expect Malinin to include it in the free, and he likely needs it to beat Uno.

Malinin has been a force in skating, starting with his breakout silver-medal finish at the January 2022 U.S. Championships. He was left off last year’s Olympic team due to his inexperience, then won the world junior title last spring.

He entered these senior worlds ranked second in the field behind Uno, yet outside the top 15 in the world in the short program this season. After a comfortable win at January’s national championships, he can become the youngest men’s world champion since Russian Alexei Yagudin in 1998.

Two-time U.S. Olympian Jason Brown placed sixth with a clean short in his first full international competition since last year’s Olympics.

The third American, Andrew Torgashev, fell on his opening quad toe loop and ended up 22nd in his worlds debut.

Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen has not skated this season, going back to Yale, and is not expected to return to competition. Silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan has been out with left leg and ankle bone injuries. Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu retired.

Earlier Thursday, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won Japan’s first pairs’ world title, dethroning Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who last year became the first Americans to win a pairs’ world title since 1979.

More on the pairs’ event here.

Worlds continue Thursday night (U.S. time) with the rhythm dance, followed Friday morning with the women’s free skate, live on Peacock and USA Network.

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2023 World Figure Skating Championships results

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2023 World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan, top 10 and notable results …

Women (Short Program)
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 79.24
2. Lee Hae-In (KOR) — 73.62
3. Mai Mihara (JPN) — 73.46
4. Isabeau Levito (USA) — 73.03
5. Loena Hendrickx (BEL) — 71.94
6. Niina Petrokina (EST) — 68.00
7. Nicole Schott (GER) — 67.29
8. Bradie Tennell (USA) — 66.45
9. Ekaterina Kurakova (POL) — 65.69
10. Amber Glenn (USA) — 65.52

FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Broadcast Schedule

Men (Short Program)
1. Shoma Uno (JPN) — 104.63
2. Ilia Malinin (USA) — 100.38
3. Cha Jun-Hwan (KOR) — 99.64
4. Keegan Messing (CAN) — 98.75
5. Kevin Aymoz (FRA) — 95.56
6. Jason Brown (USA) — 94.17
7. Kazuki Tomono (JPN) — 92.68
8. Daniel Grassl (ITA) — 86.50
9. Lukas Britschgi (SUI) — 86.18
10. Vladimir Litvintsev (AZE) — 82.71
17. Sota Yamamoto (JPN) — 75.48
22. Andrew Torgashev (USA) — 71.41

Pairs
Gold: Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) — 222.16
Silver: Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (USA) — 217.48
Bronze: Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii (ITA) — 208.08
4. Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (CAN) — 199.97
5. Emily Chan/Spencer Howe (USA) — 194.73
6. Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud (CAN) — 193.00
7. Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) — 190.67
8. Anastasia Golubova/Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (AUS) — 189.47
9. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) — 184.60
10. Alisa Efimova/Ruben Blommaert (GER) — 184.46
12. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) — 175.59

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