By Gary Anderson

Brazil's men have been crowned goalball world champions for the first time in Espoo ©Getty Images Brazil secured their first men's Goalball World Championships title after an impressive 9-1 win over hosts and reigning Paralympic champions Finland in Espoo, while the United States took the women's crown with a 3-0 victory over Russia.

The Brazilians continued their free-scoring form in yesterday's final as they overwhelmed Finland in a repeat of the London 2012 gold medal match to gain revenge at the Sport Hall Tapiola.

Leomon Silva was the star for the Brazilians in the semi-final, scoring 11 goals as they trounced Lithuania 14-4 and he was once again the main man in the decider, bagging six goals as his side became world champions for the first time.

Brazil remained the only undefeated side throughout the tournament, scoring the most goals and conceding the fewest with Silva and team mate Romario Marques netting 51 and 30 goals respectively throughout the Championships.

After losing out to Brazil in the semi-final, 2010 world champions Lithuania regrouped to overcome the US in the bronze medal match, taking the win 4-2.

Brazil's win will be all the more sweeter after they lost out to Finland in the gold medal game at London 2012 ©Getty Images Brazil's win will be all the more sweeter after they lost out to Finland in the gold medal game at London 2012 ©Getty Images




Meanwhile, in the women's competition the US claimed a first world title since 2002 as they proved too strong for Russia.

Both sides came into the decider boasting strong defensive records, but it was the Russians who cracked as they could not find a response to an early strike from Aysa Miller and two from Amanda Dennis.

The US had disposed of reigning Paralympic champions Japan in the semi-final and speaking after clinching the world title, head coach Kenneth Armbruster said he was delighted with his team's performance.

"The girls did everything that I asked them to do," he said.

"We came here with three goals to make it through the crossover, put ourselves in the position to go to Rio [2016 Paralympic Games] and the last step was to hear our national anthem at the end.

"They came through perfectly and we executed exactly what we wanted to do."

Aysa Miller bagged an early goal in the women's final in Espoo to help the United States to a 3-0 win over Russia ©Getty Images Aysa Miller bagged an early goal in the women's final in Espoo to help the United States to a 3-0 win over Russia ©Getty Images




The Japanese appeared to be still feeling the effects of that loss to the Americans as they surprisingly lost out to Turkey 3-0 in the bronze medal match.

Finland's Erkki Miinala and American Miller were named men's and women's most valuable players of the tournament respectively.

As well as winning World Championship medals in Espoo this week, the three medallists in the men's and women's competitions have also secured an automatic spot at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

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