Brazil's Emanuel Rego named men's FIVB Most Outstanding

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Lausanne, Switzerland -- Capping their world championship season, Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego were the winners of seven men's post-season awards for the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

In voting by players, coaches, referees and officials on the popular international beach volleyball circuit, the youthful giant Alison and the legendary elder statesman Emanuel were honored as the men's Team of the Year on the 2011 FIVB World Tour along with six individual awards for the season.

Winning the 2011 FIVB World Tour season point championship with five gold medals in 11 events including the 2011 FIVB World Championship and a match record of 60-8 (88.2 percent), the young 6-8 Alison, 25, was recognized as the world tour's Best Offensive Player, Best Blocker and Best Hitter for the 2011 season while the veteran 6-3 Emanuel, 38, was honored as the Most Outstanding Player as well as the Most Inspirational and Sportsman of the Year.

The other annual award winners were Netherlands' Reinder Nummerdor (Best Defensive Player), Germany's Eric Koreng (Best Server), USA's Phil Dalhausser (Best Setter), Poland's Mariusz Prudel (Most Improved Player) and Switzerland's Sebastian Chevalier (Top Rookie). While Koreng's award was determined by his top serve speed of 108.1kmh recorded during this year's Grand Slam event in Moscow, the others were all selected by the FIVB vote.

It was the second time in three years that Nummerdor received his award, while Dalhausser won his for the third consecutive years while Koreng, Prudel and Chevalier are all first-time award recipients.

The ever-humble Emanuel even deferred to his teammate in receiving his Most Outstanding Player award, commenting, "It is a surprise as, with my player feeling, I strongly believed that Alison deserved this award. I can only thank everyone who was part of my selection. At the age of 38, being elected the best player of the world is not a simple thing. I believe it can be a legacy for the players who are starting now to get motivated and believe they can make it".

While Alison/Emanuel have been a team for 23 events (two years) with five gold medals, four silver, six bronze and 16 final four appearances, Emanuel's legendary career includes 74 FIVB World Tour career wins in 18 seasons and a sport-record $2,234,885 in FIVB career earnings including an FIVB record 10 career FIVB World Tour season point championships with five different partners.

All-Time Men's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Award Winners
Most Outstanding
2011 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2010 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2009 - Harley Marques, Brazil and Richard Schuil, Netherlands
2008 - Harley, Brazil
2007 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2006 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2005 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil

Best Blocker
2011 - Alison Cerutti, Brazil
2010 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2009 - Jonas Reckermann, Germany
2008 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2007 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2006 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2005 - Fabio Magalhaes Brazil

Best Defensive Player
2011 - Reinder Nummerdor, Netherlands
2010 - Todd Rogers, United States
2009 - Reinder Nummerdor, Netherlands
2008 - Todd Rogers, United States
2007 - Todd Rogers, United States
2006 - Martin Conde, Argentina and Todd Rogers, United States
2005 - Marcio Araujo, Brazil

Best Hitter
2011 - Alison Cerutti, Brazil
2010 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2009 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2008 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2007 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2006 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2005 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil

Best Offensive Player
2011 - Alison Cerutti, Brazil
2010 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2009 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2008 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2007 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2006 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2005 - Ricardo Santos, Brazil

Best Server
2011 - Eric Koreng, Germany
2010 - Igor Kolodinsky, Russia
2009 - Igor Kolodinsky, Russia
2008 - Igor Kolodinsky, Russia
2007 - Igor Kolodinsky, Russia
2006 - Iver Horrem, Norway
2005 - Conrad Leinemann, Canada

Best Setter
2011 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2010 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2009 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2008 - Marcio Araujo, Brazil
2007 - Marcio Araujo, Brazil
2006 - Marcio Araujo, Brazil and Todd Rogers, United States
2005 - Todd Rogers, United States

Most Improved Player
2011 - Mariusz Prudel, Poland
2010 - Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Brazil
2009 - Alison Cerutti, Brazil
2008 - Andy Ces, France
2007 - Dmitri Barsouk, Russia and Linyin Xu, China
2006 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2005 - Fabio Magalhaes, Brazil

Most Inspirational
2011 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2010 - Linyun Xu, China
2009 - Harley Marques, Brazil
2008 - Todd Rogers, United States
2007 - Franco Neto, Brazil
2006 - Franco Neto, Brazil
2005 - Mark Heese, Canada

Sportsman
2011 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2010 - Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2009 - Rivo Vesik, Estonia
2008 - Phil Dalhausser, United States
2007 - Franco Neto, Brazil
2006 - Franco Neto, Brazil
2005 - Emanuel Neto, Brazil

Team of the Year
2011 - Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego, Brazil
2010 - Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers, United States
2009 - Julius Brink/Reckermann, Germany
2008 - Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado, Brazil
2007 - Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2006 - Emanuel Rego//Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2005 - Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil

Top Rookie
2011 - Sebastian Chevalier, Switzerland
2010 - Karl Jaani, Estonia
2009 - Ruslans Sorokins, Latvia
2008 - Adrian Gavira Collado, Spain
2007 - Igor Kolodinsky, Russia
2006 - Sean Rosenthal, United States
2005 - Matteo Varnier, Italy & Jake Gibb, United States

All-Time Men's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Points Champions
Season, Team, Country
1989-90 Sinjin Smith/Randy Stoklos, United States
1990-91 Sinjin Smith/Randy Stoklos, United States
1991-92 Sinjin Smith/Randy Stoklos, United States
1992-93 Sinjin Smith/Randy Stoklos, United States
1993-94 Franco Neto/Roberto Lopes, Brazil
1994-95 Jan Kvalheim/Bjorn Maaseide, Norway
1995-96 Franco Neto/Roberto Lopes, Brazil
1996 ZeMarco de Melo/Emanuel Rego, Brazil
1997 ZeMarco de Melo/Emanuel Rego, Brazil
1998 Para Ferreira /Guilherme Marquez, Brazil
1999 Emanuel Rego/Jose Loiola, Brazil
2000 ZeMarco de Melo/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2001 Emanuel Rego/Tande Ramos, Brazil
2002 Mariano Baracetti/Martin Conde, Argentina
2003 Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2004 Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2005 EmanuelRego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2006 Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2007 Emanuel Rego/Ricardo Santos, Brazil
2008 Harley Marques/Pedro Salgado, Brazil
2009 Julius Brink/Jonas Reckermann, Germany
2010 Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers
2011 Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego

Content courtesy of FIVB