Round-up: All-change for men's Beach Volleyball

On the women's side of the draw it was once again the powerhouse pairing of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh who prevailed.

They secured their third gold medal and maintained a remarkable unbeaten streak at the Olympics since their winning debut at Athens in 2004.

The impending retirement of the 35-year-old May-Treanor heralds the end of the duo's Olympic monopoly.

But their beaten opponents in Wednesday's final were fellow USA players Jennifer Kessy and April Ross so perhaps the nation is set to remain a force to contend with at the highest level.

'It's tough to play your own country,' said May-Treanor after the final. 'But it's nice to have an all-US final. That's what we want. It says a lot about volleyball in the US.'

Elsewhere, the always-fancied Brazilians played second best to the USA again, with Juliana Silva and Larissa Franca coming third, while China's Zhang Xi and Xue Chen failed to emulate their Beijing 2008 bronze as they took fourth.

As has been the case at every Olympic Games since the sport's inception in 1996, no European side reached the women's semi-finals, but there was evidence things may change in the coming years.

The young Czech Republic pair of Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova showed enough on their run to the quarter-finals to suggest that they should be a force to be reckoned with at Rio 2016, while Germany's Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig, and Italy's Marta Mengatti and Greta Cicolari also showed promise.

It's great for European Beach Volleyball. It's great that we were the ones who won the gold. I hope it will bring up our sport in Europe.

Jonas Reckermann

But the biggest surprise to emerge from the sport's 13 days at Horse Guards Parade was the arrival of Europe as a major player at Olympic level in the men's draw.

Few would have picked out Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann as likely gold medal winners at the start of the competition, but when traditional superpowers the USA and Brazil began to stutter and fall, the powerful pairing took full advantage.

They were impressive in defeating Brazil's Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego in three sets in Thursday's final.

The German duo was one of three European teams to reach the semi-finals at Horse Guards - with Latvia going on to take third place and the Netherlands fourth.

The advancing years of Ricardo Santos and Rego for Brazil, and Todd Rogers' insistence that he will not do another Olympics with Phil Dalhausser for the USA mean now could be the time for the European teams to kick on.

Gold at Horse Guards Parade was a good start, and its significance was not lost on the victorious Reckermann.

'It's great for European Beach Volleyball,' he said. 'It's great that we were the ones who won the gold. I hope it will bring up our sport in Europe.'