US beach volleyball pair win third gold

LONDON (Reuters) : United States pair Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their third straight Olympic gold medal in women’s beach volleyball by beating compatriots Jennifer Kessy and April Ross 21-16 21-16 in the final on Wednesday.

May-Treanor and Walsh took gold in Athens in 2004 and again in Beijing in 2008. No other beach volleyball team, men or women, have retained an Olympic title, let alone won a third.

At the end of the match, the two women fell to their knees face-to-face in the sand and hugged.

Then they got up, bathed in tears, and ran off in different directions to embrace family and friends and do high fives with Olympic volunteers.

After a while, May-Treanor returned to the sand and performed a few solo dance moves, which she later described as “the shuffle”.

Kessy and Ross, the 2009 world champions, were competing in their first Olympics. They have spent much of their careers in the shadow of Walsh and May-Treanor and the final was no exception.