PARIS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — World No. 1 Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa from Brazil beat Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson of Canada in a three-set thriller in the final on Friday to claim the gold medal of the women’s beach volleyball at the Paris Games.
The Brazilian duo were crowned with their seventh straight win at the Eiffel Tower Stadium 26-24, 12-21, 15-10 while Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson took home Canada’s first Olympic medal in women’s beach volleyball.
Having had to fight through from the lucky loser round to the final, the Canadians surprisingly jumped to an 8-2 lead in the first set, only to find the unbeaten Brazilian tandem pull it back at 17-all. Then the two sides exchanged leads for a tie at 24-24 before Silva Ramos and Santos Lisboa took two points in a row for the opener.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson pulled away from a 10-all to wrap up the second set with a 11-2 burst and forced the tiebreak, where the Brazilians raced to a 5-2 lead and never looked back.
Earlier on Friday, Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner of Switzerland swept Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy from Australia 21-17, 21-15 for the bronze medal.
