Olympics-Beach Volleyball-US women power into title defence

By Jane Barrett

BEIJING, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Defending champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh shook off the rain and sailed through the first pool match of the women's beach volleyball on Sunday.

The American pair beat Japan's Chiaki Kusuhara and Mika Teru Saiki 21-12, 21-15 in a speedy 36 minutes, showing just why they are favourites to become the first team to defend an Olympic beach volleyball title.

The Japanese put the three-time world champions through their paces, though, forcing long rallies that tested their range of tactics, from Walsh's towering blocks to May-Treanor's stinging spikes and serves.

"It felt good out there, it was our first time on centre. But it's so humid it was kind of hard to get your breath back in long rallies," said May-Treanor, who with Walsh did not drop a match in Athens.

Temperatures in the 12,200-seater Chaoyang Park stadium floated around the mid-30s on Saturday but on Sunday dropped to 28 degrees Celsius (82F), with rain pouring throughout the match and 87 percent humidity.

"We wear bikinis. We expect to get wet," said May-Treanor, 31. "We play so much in humidity and sun it's actually fun to get rain sometimes." (Editing by Alex Richardson)