Commonwealth Games
- Coolangatta Beachfront; Queensland, Australia
- April 6-12, 2017
- Schedule/Results
World #1 Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada proved they were also the best on the Gold Coast as well, besting homestanding Australians Mariafe Artacho de Solar and Taliqua Clancy for the Commonwealth Games gold medal on Thursday.
The Canadians bested the 19th-ranked Aussies 21-19, 22-20 with help from four Pavan blocks and despite six service miscues. The 45-minute long match was a back-and-forth battle throughout. In Set 1, Artacho del Solar/Clancy were up 19-18 before a Pavan kill, an Australian hitting error and Pavan block sealed the win. In Set 2, the Canadians took an early 5-1 lead, but saw it evaporate into an 11-all tie and later a 15-13 deficit. The Australians had the first set point try at 20-19, but two Pavan kills and a Clancy miscue sewed up the Canadian gold medal at 22-20.
“We wanted this so badly,” Humana-Parades said. “This is our first gold medal. This is what we’ve been waiting for so long.”
The bronze medal went to Linline Matauatu/Miller Pata of Vanuatu after a 21-14, 21-10 win over Mariota Angelopoulou/Manolina Konstantinou of Cyprus. Errors were a major difference in the match as Matauatu/Pata benefitted from 12 Cyprus miscues, while committing five. The victors also boasted a 26-18 lead in kills.
Seventy-one countries are represented at the Commonwealth Games, with 12 fielding pairs in the beach volleyball debut at the event.
On the women’s side, entries came from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, England, Fiji, Granada, New Zealand, Rwanda, Scotland, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu.
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