Canadians McNamara won silver medals in Nanjing Games

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Canadians Megan and Nicole McNamara finished with silver medals at Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games after losing to Brazilians Ana Patricia Silva and Eduarda Lisboa in the final contest of the beach volleyball tournament.

After winning the first set 21-17 the twins McNamara lost the second set 21-13 and were leading 8-4 in the tie-breaker before losing 16-14.

Both teams entered the gold medal match after winning semi-final affairs with the Canadians defeating Lisa Arnholdt and Sarah Schneider of Germany 2-0 (21-18 and 21-18) in 33 minutes before Ana Patricia and Eduarda downed Nadezda Makroguzova and Daria Rudykh of Russia 2-0 (21-18 and 21-19) in 38 minutes.

“We are still very happy,” said Megan McNamara, who is 19 minutes older than her sister.  “They are a very good team.  Our goal was to win a medal, and it’s amazing we were able to do that.  We are happy to be here.”  Sister Nicole echoed the same and said “it was an awesome experience to be here, and the medal makes it even better. Our hard work paid off.”

Americans Caputo and Muno lost to the McNamaras in the quarterfinals 2-1 (14-21, 21-18, 15-8) while Puerto Ricans Bernier-Cajigas lost to Silva and Lisboa 2-0 (21-16, 21-12) in the Round of 16.

Skye and Noel of St Lucia lost to Switzerland’s Rohrer and Gerson in the Round of 24 while Ward and Davidson of Trinidad & Tobago and Bethancourt and Giron of Guatemala didn’t survive the pool play.