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Birmingham, England, August 7, 2022 - Four years
after they were golden at the 2018 Gold Coast
Commonwealth Games, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes
and Sarah Pavan defeated their Australian rivals
Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in
a tie-break set at the women’s beach volleyball
final. The score was 22-24, 21-17,15-12,
delighting the crowds at the Smithfield venue in
Birmingham, England.
"A second Commonwealth gold medal, it’s a great
feeling," said Kitchener, Ontario’s Pavan. “It
was a much better performance on our side than
yesterday (in the semi-final). It’s nice to walk
away with a gold medal for Canada and this has
just been an incredible experience.”
Said Humana-Paredes of Toronto: "This medal
holds a lot of weight for me. It’s been four
years and a lot can change, so the fact that we
could execute another gold-medal performance is
rare and very special. ... I think this
represents a lot of work and it’s for Team
Canada!"
Earlier in the day, the Canadian men’s team took
silver after an exciting three-set contest, also
with Australia.
Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Dan
Dearing (Toronto) were finally beaten in extra
points by Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett 1-2
(21-17, 17-21, 18-20).
"Both teams played at an incredibly high level –
each team had rhythm at different points in the
match...," said Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill,
ON, who also won silver at the Gold Coast Games,
but with previous partner Sam Pedlow. "There
were a couple of different things that I wish I
could have changed, but overall I’m pretty
impressed with how we played. We were
resilient."
The pair had gone undefeated up until today’s
final. England won men’s bronze, which was the
first Commonwealth beach volleyball medal ever
for this host nation. Vanuatu won the women’s
bronze match over New Zealand. |
