As one of the most experienced teams on the FIVB World Tour, Gavira and Herrera will be competing in the World Championships for the fourth time together as the 18th-seeded team.    The pair has placed fifth at the last three World Championships in Stavanger (2009), Rome (2011) and Stare Jablonki (2013).  Entering the 2015 season, the Spaniards have 10 FIVB World Tour podium placements with 15 “final four” finishes.  The Spaniards are winless in five FIVB gold medal matches with their last final being in 2013 at Long Beach against Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal of the United States.  Gavira and Herrera’s best placements in 2014 were five fifths.  Gavira and Herrera were second-place finishers in the inaugural FIVB stop in The Hague in 2009 where they dropped the title match to Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuill from The Netherlands.  Herrera is a three-time Olympian and captured the silver medal at the Athens 2004 Summer Games after losing the finale to Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos of Brazil.  Herrera then teamed with Gavira to place ninth at both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games.  Herrera is a two-time European champion, including a 2005 title with Raul Mesa and a 2013 gold medal with Gavira.  Herrera and Mesa also captured the 2002 FIVB under-21 World Championship at Catania, Italy.  Gavira was the FIVB’s top rookie in 2008.