Canada won gold and bronze medals Sunday at the five-star FIVB event in Gstaad, Switzerland, the first time Canada has earned dual medals in a single women’s World Tour event.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Canada beat Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany for the gold medal (21-17, 12-21, 17-15). Laboureur and Sude had match point at 15-14 in the third set, but the Canadians ran off three straight points, capped off by a Sude net violation. It is the second gold medal of the year for Humana-Paredes and Pavan, who won the FIVB four-star in Xiamen.
Laboreur and Sude have two previous FIVB medals to their credit this year, with a silver in Warsaw last week and bronze in Huntington beach.
Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada defeated Agatha
Bednarczuk and Eduarda Duda of Brazil for third (21-19, 21-13). Bansley and Wilkerson, down 7-1 and 11-4 in the first set, earned their fourth medal of the year, previously earning gold in Warsaw, silver in Ostrava, and Bronze in Itapema.
In the semifinals, Humana-Paredes and Pavan edged Bednarczuk and Duda in the third set (14-21, 21-12, 15-13) and Laboureur and Sude downed Bansley and Wilkerson (25-27, 21-14, 18-16).
In the FIVB U19 World Championships in Nanjing, China, Californians Devon Newberry and Lindsey Sparks finished fourth after a loss to Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno of Spain (12-10, 18-21, 12-15).
Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina of Russia won the gold medal with a tightly contested defeat of Raisa Schoon and Emi van Driel of the Netherlands (19-21, 21-19, 15-13).
In the men’s draw, Russia won both gold and bronze as Alexey Gusev and Pavel Shustrov of Russia defeated Mauro Zelayeta and Bautista Amieva of Argentina (21-18, 21-16) and Denis Shekunov and Dmitrii Veretiuk of Russia defeated Lukas Pfretzschner and Filip John of Germany (21-19, 21-18).
