COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 6, 2011) - In front of a sold-out, 8,000-person Austrian crowd, the U.S. beach team of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor captured the gold medal at the $600,000 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour A1 Grand Slam presented by Volksbank on Saturday in Klagenfurt, Austria. 

May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), seeded fourth, secured the tournament title after downing China’s second-seeded team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang, 21-14, 26-24 in 37 minutes. 

It was the 11th time the two teams have met, with the Americans holding a 9-2 record. The pairs have also been in the top three numerous times together, but most notably in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where May-Treanor and Walsh took gold while Xue and Zhang gained the bronze.

The medal was the 38th FIVB international gold medal for the dynamic duo and their 58th final-four appearance.

“I never get over the emotion of this place, the fans get you so pumped up it’s hard to keep from getting so excited that you make mistakes,” said Walsh in an FIVB release. “Our goal is the 2012 London Olympics and these FIVB Swatch World Tour events are big steps on the road to London. 

The Klagenfurt gold medal is the fifth for the pair at the annual event advancing their 2011 FIVB Swatch World Tour record to 48-9.

Taking bronze at the tournament was Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel of the Netherlands who topped Brazil’s third-seeded team of Talita Da Rocha Antunes and Maria Antonelli, 21-18, 24-22 in 42 minutes.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour will take a week off for the 24-team women’s only Olympic test event in London before Europe hosts the final two double-gender open events in Finland from August 15-21 and The Hague, Netherlands from August 23-28.