Beach volleyball, the quintessential beach sport, is still the showpiece event here in the same way that the 100 metres sprint and downhill Alpine skiing events are at the Summer and Winter Olympics.

A mixture of dedicated fans and curious onlookers pieced into two temporary stands as others crowded as close as possible to catch a glimpse of the action.

They first saw a "Qatar derby" albeit with an international flavour as Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younnousse, of Brazilian and Senegalese extraction, took on team-mates Julio De Nascimento and Ahmed Tijan.

Jefferson and Cherif had reached the round of 16 at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after winning the International Volleyball Federation World Tour event in Kish Island in February - and their quality told here again.

They proved too strong and powerful for their opponents in a 21-15, 21-14 victory.

Unlike at many other beach volleyball events, there were neither cheerleaders nor loud music to compliment the action today.

This did not matter in the women's final, however, due to fanatical support for Thailand spectators wearing flamboyant national dress.

They blared drums and sang songs, including one, built around the English lyric "We are Thailand, we are Vietnam" which got the whole crowd singing.

It also inspired Thailand's team on the sand as Varapatsorn Radarong and Tanarattha Udomchavee secured a straight sets victory over Wang Xinxin and Tang Ningya of China. 

There appeared little between the teams in a closely contested opening set, although the Thai duo always seemed to be one or two points ahead as they made up their shorter height with greater variety and tactical awareness.

They eventually won the first set 21-18 before taking a slightly easier second, 21-15.

It marked the pair's second Asian Beach Games title after they followed a gold medal at Haiyang 2012 with silver at Phuket 2014.

They also won a silver medal at the Incheon 2014 Asian Games.

Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Yakolev and Alexey Sidorenko had earlier won the men's bronze medal match while Wang Fan and Xin Xinyi secured the third spot on the women's podium.

It came on the final day of Asian Beach Games competition ahead of the Closing Ceremony tomorrow.

Japan won a thrilling men's beach soccer final 4-3 against Oman elsewhere after Lebanon beat Afghanistan 9-5 for bronze.

Vietnam edged China 2-1 for women's beach handball spoils.

Qatar then beat Oman by the same scoreline in the corresponding men's final.

Pakistan beat Vietnam 2-1 for men's bronze while Thailand saw off Taiwan 2-0 to claim the third women's medal.

Ahris Sumariyanto of Indonesia and Phung Thi Thuong of Vietnam also took the respective male and female strong singles titles in woodball.

It meant that Vietnam topped the medals table with 52 gold, 44 silver and 43 bronze.

Thailand placed second with 36 gold, 20 silver and 30 bronze while China were a distant third with 12 gold, 18 silver and 19 bronze.

Twenty-seven nations won at least one gold, with a further eight winning at least one minor medal.