Brazilian men's beach volleyball win in Australia

BRASILIA, March (Xinhua) -- Pedro Solberg and Harley won on Sunday the men's gold medal in the Australian Open, the first stage of the World Circuit of beach volleyball.

With their victory over Wu and Xu from China 23-21 and 21-12, they repeated their feat from last year's starting the Circuit off with a stage victory and a gold medal.

The game started off evenly, both teams highly concentrated on the game. However, undefeated in the tournament, Solberg and Harley increased the rhythm and closed out the first set.

From that point on, the Brazilians never slowed down. The second set came easily to the Brazilians. "It was a tough game. But, once we won the first set, we went to the break with a confidence that no one would be us," said Harley.

This is the duo's first title of the year. The team is projecting a strong candidacy for representing Brazil in this year's Olympic Games.

Currently, Solberg and Harley are 420 points behind their compatriots Marcio and Fabio Luiz, who have 4,740 points in the race for Beijing. Brazil will have the right to take two beach volleyball teams to the Olympics.

Sunday's final game witnessed for the first time in 22 years that a team from China made it to the finals of a World Circuit stage.