Bountiful spiker Gibb takes gold

Bountiful's Jake Gibb and his partner Sean Rosenthal won all six of the Swatch FIVB World Tour beach volleyball matches and took the gold medal Sunday in the first Prague 2008 Open. For the gold medal, the 13th-seeded Americans defeated the 11th-seeded German team of Julius Brink and Christoph Dieckmann 21-13 and 23-21 in 47 minutes. The tournament completed the Gibb-Rosenthal partnership's requirement of playing in eight Swatch FIVB World Tour tournaments that will allow them to be considered for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It was their second international title together. They shared the $28,000 first-place prize.

Gibb-Rosenthal did not have such a victory last year, but this was their second international title this year.

�I think the big difference is that I am playing a lot better this year,� said the 32-year old Gibb. �With this event being part of the Olympic qualifying process, I realized that we did not help ourselves a lot last year in making it to Beijing. We were more focused with our preparation this year, and it has helped us in getting two the semi-finals in our first two FIVB events this season.