World and World Tour Finals champs complete amazing turnaround

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Kira and Laura entered five tournaments this season - and won two gold medals

It’s hard to believe that the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst have played just five times together this season.

Their rollercoaster season saw both players on the sidelines with injury – but it’s ended in style with back-to-back gold medals in two of the biggest tournaments in beach volleyball.

“It’s been crazy,” said Kira afterwards. “We knew that Laura’s shoulder injury would take some time to heal but when she came back then I was injured so it was a bit frustrating.

“But to now sit here and win the World Champs and now the World Tour Finals is really amazing. It gives us a lot of self-confidence and I think a big reason for that is the team we have behind us helping us.”

The bad news for the rest of the world trying to play catch up with the Olympic champs is that the Germans have no intention of stopping.

“I think we can play even better than this year and last year,” added Walkenhorst. “When you feel you can do something better you have the motivation to go and train hard every day and work hard.”

The next big prize on the Laura’s wishlist is a second Olympic gold medal.

“I saw Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor winning three golds in a row I was thinking ‘wow, I want this as well’ – then when Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won gold in London 2012 I was sitting in the chair thinking to myself if they can do I want to do it at as well.

“I’m still young but I take everything from day to day, match to match, year by year – let’s get to Tokyo first and we’ll see.”

Want to watch back this epic final? You can on BeachStream! Click here to register, it’s free!

A packed Red Bull Beach Arena crowd cheered on their heroes to gold