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ROME, Italy, June 19, 2022 - After an impressive
run, Canada’s Sophie Bukovec and Brandie
Wilkerson fell to Brazil’s Eduarda Santos Lisboa
(Duda) and Ana Patricia Ramos 0-2 (17-21, 19-21)
in Sunday’s women’s final at the Beach
Volleyball World Championships Rome 2022.
Bukovec and Wilkerson were seeded 20th in the
tournament and the team showed great composure
winning their pool and advancing to the
gold-medal match against the number-two seeded
team from Brazil. Yesterday, the Canadians
defeated Svenja Müller/ Cinja Tillmann of
Germany in the tie-break of their semi-final.
For the most part in today’s match, Duda/Ana
Patricia had the edge over the Canadian team,
but Bukovec and Wilkerson not only stayed close
behind in the score in the second set, but even
took the lead at 17-16. In the end, it was
Brazil’s day to win gold. The German team took
bronze, after an injury to one of the Swiss
players during that match earlier today.
This is the first year Wilkerson and Bukovec,
both of Toronto, have played together as a team.
Wilkerson has previously competed at two World
Championships, with the Vienna 2017 fifth place
as her best result with Heather Bansley. Bukovec
is a relative newcomer, but won the FIVB Beach
Volleyball U21 World Championships with then
teammate Tia Miric, and has been working with
several partners at the senior level.
This is the second podium finish in a row for
Canadian women at the Beach Worlds. Sarah Pavan
and Melissa Humana-Paredes won gold in 2019, but
were eliminated by Duda/Ana Patrícia in Friday's
quarterfinals. They finished fifth in the
standings at this tournament.
Norway's Anders Mol and Christian Sorum won the
men's gold over Brazil's Vitor Felipe and Renato
Lima today In Rome. |
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