June 09, 2024: Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson will bring home a silver medal from the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Ostrava Elite16 in Czech Republic.
The Canadian team, who have secured a spot to Paris 2024 via rankings, won their pool without dropping a set, then beat Italy in the quarterfinals yesterday. Earlier today, the Canadians swept Latvia’s Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Samoilova 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) in the semifinals.
In the gold-medal match, they faced reigning World Champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the United States. The U.S. came out strong, dominating in the first set, but Canada came back for a very tight second set and were able to force the tie-break. In the end, it was 1-2 (13-21, 23-21,12-15) in favour of USA.
“We are so proud to finish our Olympic qualification with a medal. We fought all week long, and things are clicking. We fell short in the finals by a couple points, but there is so much good to take from this and it’s always a battle with Kelly and Sara,” said Humana-Paredes. “It was such a blast being in Ostrava, the crowd is electric, and we feel so loved and supported here by the fans and our team.”
Last year, this same team won the bronze in Ostrava.
This team is among the 17 highest ranked teams as per the Olympic Ranking (based on the best 12 performances as a team for the period from January 01, 2023 to June 09, 2024) that secured a spot in Paris 2024.
Rankings can be found here: https://www.fivb.com/beach-volleyball/rankings/ranking-women/olympic/
Canada’s official team announcement will come after the NORCECA Continental Qualifier, where Canada will attempt to qualify additional beach teams for Paris. The qualifier will be held in Tlaxcala , Mexico.
Matches can be viewed at cbcsports.ca or VBTV.
Photo: Volleyball World
Volleyball Canada Media contact:
Jackie Skender
Mobile: 1.613.794.7676
