Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor brought the US the gold medal in women’s beach volleyball on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Walsh and May-Treanor, the defending champions and the reigning world champions, beat Tian Jia and Wang Jie of China in two sets.

Although heavy rain that fell non-stop made conditions in Chaoyang Park difficult, a capacity crowd of 12,000 turned out to see whether Tian and Wang could cause a major upset, but the Americans were simply too strong as they won both sets 21-18 in 42 minutes.

There was some consolation for local fans as Xue Chen and Zhang Xi added a bronze for the hosts after defeating Brazilians Talita Rocha and Renata Ribeiro 21-19 and 21-17.

"We played a fantastic match today," Xui said. "Both teams played well, and, although I feel my partner and I performed well in all our Olympic matches, we delivered our best match today."

Zhang added: "No matter who won the game, we provided a wonderful show for our audience."