ATHENS, Aug. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Brazil beat Italy 3-1 here on Sunday to claim the men's title of the Athens Olympic volleyball tournament.

    The multi-title holder Brazilians defeated their rivals by 25-15, 24-26, 25-20 and 25-22 to claim their first Olympic title since 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

    Then Brazilian crowned at 1992 Barcelona Olympics as they trounced Netherlands 3-0 in the final, and took the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

    Brazil was beaten outside the final of the 2000 Sydney Olympicswhile they lost to Argentina 3-1 during the quarterfinals.

    However, Brazil came back strongly after Sydney Olympics as they won at the 2002 Buenos Aires World Championship, the 2003 Tokyo World Cup and the 2003 World League.

    Both team traded lead in the opening set before Brazil made a 5-1 run to take the lead 14-10. Italy tried to catch up but too many faults only allowed the Brazilians take another 7-2 run to finish the first set.

    The Italians, who claimed bronze medal in 2000 and silver in 1996, found their form in the second set and improved their offense. After a 12-12 tie both sides traded point by point to tie it at 24-all. Italy then went up 25-24 with a successful spike from Andrea Sartoretti and Valerio Vermiglio's block helped Italy claw a set back.

    Led by setter Mauricio Lima, who has taken part in his fifth Olympics, the Brazlians never gave any chances to Italy in the third set. They started with a 7-3 lead and never looked back.

    In the fourth set, the Italians geared up to tie the game, but their poor performance on receiving only helped the Brazilians to enlarge the lead.

    After tied at 6-6, the Brazilians got the advantage with a 4-1 run and maintain the two points lead to win the set.

    Dante Guimaraes Amaral's jumping serve smashed the Italian defense and concluded the match for Brazil 25-22.

    Gilberto Godoy Filho of Brazil scored a game-high 20 points while Luigi Mastrangelo led Italy with 18 points.

    The Brazilians had nine points from serving while Italy only had four.

    Early on Sunday, Russia defeated the United States in straight sets to win the bronze medal.

    Alexey Kuleshov of Russia led the game with 16 points while Serguey Tetyukhin added 13.

    Clayton Stanley scored 13 points for the North America team, but the Americans could not find the way to go over the blocks of Russia over the net throughout the game.

    Russia had 15 blocks in the one hour 18 minutes game, while theUnited States only had six. Enditem