Brazil take deserve gold

Their 25-15, 18-25, 25-13, 25-21 victory in a high-class final came after three straight semi-finals and successive bronzes at the 1996 Atlanta Games and in Sydney four years later.

"We struggled a lot," said Brazil's Sheilla Castro. "We played hard and we never gave up. Only in the second set we played badly.

"It hasn't hit me that we've won."

Defeat put paid to a fairytale finish for US coach Lang Ping, a member of the China side that beat the United States in the 1984 Olympic women's volleyball final in Los Angeles.

However, Lang said: "I am not too emotional, personally. The team has improved every day, especially the young players.

"I am very lucky to have this crowd support. The people here have given us a lot of care and love, especially off the court."

US captain Lindsey Berg added: "The gold medal match is always bitter-sweet for the loser. But what we've got to look at is that we got a silver medal.

"Nobody expected it but we knew deep down inside that we were that good. We came out to this tournament and fought our hearts out.

"We came to play the number one team in the world, we got a game (set) off them and we could have taken them to five. That's all we could ask for, we are just thrilled."

Brazil's women had powered their way through to the final without losing a set, defeating hosts and reigning Olympic champions China in the semis where the United States sprung a major surprise by whitewashing Cuba.

Both sides matched each other spike for spike in the early stages while Brazilian libero Helia Sousa and her American counterpart Nicole Davis thrilled the packed crowd with brilliant defensive play.

Brazil went nine points ahead as they surged into a 20-11 lead and Pequeno's service winner gave them the first set.

However, it was a different story in the next as the United States levelled at 1-1.

Their aura of invincibility punctured after 22 sets of dominance, Brazil showed they had touch to match their power, when Castro's deft push into the open court helped them into an early lead in the third.

US hits started to go long before Steinbrecher's spike put Brazil 2-1 up.

At 18-18, the fourth set was wide open.

Great scrambling from Welissa Gonzaga in the back court edged Brazil in front before more solid blocking took them to the brink of a gold which was confirmed when a spike from the Americans' Logan Tom went long.

Earlier, China beat Cuba by three sets to one (25-16, 21-25, 25-13, 25-20) to win the bronze medal.