PARIS — For the second straight year, Bountiful's Jake Gibb has taken second place at the Federation International de Volleyball Grand Slam beach tournament in Paris.
Gibb, the 15th seed with his 2006 partner Sean Rosenthal, fell on Sunday to the hottest team on the Swatch-FIVB World Tour, Brazil's Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes 21-11 and 21-17 in the 44-minute championship match of the Henkel Grand Chelem in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Gibb made $22,350 in his 10th career international competition.
Gibb and partner Stein Metzger were second in the same tournament in 2005, before Metzger broke up the nation's highest-rated pro beach volleyball team last winter after one season together. Gibb and Rosenthal won the first AVP domestic match this season in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and have also taken three seconds and a third in nine AVP tourneys this year.
Gibb-Rosenthal also lost to Araujo-Magalhaes early in the Paris tourney, falling 18-21, 21-23. That duo has won three straight Swatch-FIVB events.
"They played great," the 30-year old Gibb said in a news release from FIVB. "They played like world champions today. We had two chances at them this week. Hopefully, we get another shot at them next week (at Klagenfurt, Austria)."
Gibb-Rosenthal beat Metzger and Mike Lambert 21-17, 21-17 in the quarterfinals.