The Americans beat Australian pair Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho in straight sets in the final to win the four-star event in China.

Their 21-17, 21-19 success marked a first World Tour title for Sweat while 40-year-old Walsh Jennings, who won Olympic gold at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012 alongside Misty May-Treanor, proved she could still mix it with the best.

It came on a day when Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sørum won the men's event to clinch a second consecutive World Tour title.

"It's been so long, it just feels good, it feels good to play well as a team, it feels good to improve, it feels so good to finish on top," said Walsh Jennings, who last won on the World Tour at the Long Beach Grand Slam in August 2016.

"The world is so good at volleyball so you have to be the best on that day to win and we played great and it was so fun."

On a busy day in the women's tournament, Walsh Jennings and Sweat also won their semi-final, needing three sets to beat Brazil's Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda Santos Lisboa 21-19, 19-21, 15-13.

The set they lost was the only one the Americans dropped throughout the tournament. 

Clancy and Artacho also beat Brazilian opposition, seeing off Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Rebecca Cavalcanti Barbosa Silva 25-23, 21-14.

"It's my first gold, so to get it with Kerri in such a great tournament, we played some great teams," said 33-year-old Sweat.

"I'm so excited and looking forward to more."

Ramos and Silva won the bronze medal game by beating their compatriots 21-19, 21-15.

In the men's event, Mol and Sørum's win added to their Itapema Open success in Brazil earlier this month.

They needed to come from behind in the final before beating Brazil's Evandro Gonçalves Oliveira Júnior and Bruno Oscar Schmidt 14-21, 21-17, 15-12.

"It's been a really intense week, we fought through last week six games, now again we came with the jet lag all the way to China and we didn't really expect to play well because we feel bad after a long travel," said Mol.

"But we managed to rally and get this gold medal, it feels amazing."

In the bronze medal match, Brazil's Geroge Souto Maior Wanderley and Andre Loyola Stein were too strong for American defending champion Trevor Crabb and his new partner Tri Bourne, 21-17, 21-10.

Both men's semi-finals were played yesterday.

The next major stop on the Beach World Tour circuit is the four-star Ostrava Open, beginning in the Czech Republic on Wednesday (May 29) with the qualification tournament.