Canadians Pavan and Humana-Paredes crowned at home

EDMONTON, Canada, July 21, 2019 – The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships’ title celebration is not over yet for Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes as the Canadians secured the gold medal of the $150,000 Edmonton Open on Sunday and became the first in their nation to top the podium in their home sand.

The top-seeded Pavan and Humana-Paredes concluded a week of complete domination at the Northlands Park, in which they won all their six matches without dropping any sets, by posting a 21-11, 21-16 triumph over USA’s second-seeded Emily Day and Betsi Flint in the final. 

The 32-year-old Pavan and the 26-year-old Humana Paredes have also secured 600 Olympic qualifying points for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games and will split the $10,000 first-place prizes.

It was the fifth title for the Canadian stars in 28 FIVB events following victories in Porec in 2017, Xiamen and Gstaad in 2018 and the World Championships two weeks ago. Pavan and Humana-Paredes also triumphed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the first edition of the event to feature beach volleyball tournaments.

The bronze medal of the Edmonton Open went to Japanese Azusa Futami and Akiki Hasegawa, who triumphed over Australians Nicole Laird and Becchara Palmer 21-19, 21-17 to win their second World Tour medal as a team. 

In the men’s division, tenth-seeded Marco Krattiger and Nico Beeler placed Switzerland at the top of the podium of the men’s tournament of a FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event for the first time 2006 as the Europeans topped Canadians Ben Saxton and Grant O’Gorman 21-15, 23-25, 15-8 at the gold medal match of Edmonton Open.

The Edmonton Open podium featured a second North American duo as USA’s Stafford Slick and Billy Allen posted a 21-13, 21-16 win over Italy’s Alex Ranghieiri and Marco Caminati to secure the bronze medal, their second as a team in just 11 World Tour events.