Brazil, US in beach volleyball final

Julian Linden

Brazil will play the United States in the Olympic men's beach volleyball final after both teams survived gruelling quarter-finals and semifinals on Sunday.

The brazilian pair of Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos beat Canada 15-13 in an ill-tempered quarter-final at the temporary Bondi Beach Stadium, then returned later in the day to down Germany 15-5 in front of a capacity crowd of 10,000.

Their opponents for the gold medal on Tuesday, Californians Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana, defeated their fellow-Americans Kevin Wong and Robert Heidger 15-3 in the morning then beat Portugal 15-12 in the semis despite losing a point for time wasting. Portugal will play Germany for the bronze.

''The official said 'you took too long'. It was a terrible call,'' Fonoimoana said. ''This is a very fast paced game. We were going at it...There wasn't much rest, it was ridiculous.''

The Brazilians were also docked a point for time wasting in their quarter-final clash with the Canadian pair of John Child and Mark Heese.

The south Americans sealed victory in 81 minutes, the longest match of the tournament, but Child was upset with their tactics and accused Santos of faking an injury to try and win a crucial point.

Rinardo fell to the sand in agony after he and Child appeared to brush each other at the net with the Brazilians leading 4-0. Ricardo claimed he had been hit by Child but the referee disagreed, awarding the point to the Canadians and issuing the south American with a yellow card for time wasting.

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