Pavan/Humana-Paredes win back-to-back gold at FIVB Xiamen Open

2018-04-23

Canadian pair Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes claimed the women's title at the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open on Sunday, defeating United States team Brittany Hochevar and Kelly Claes, 2-0 (21-19, 21-14).

 

Ten days ago, Pavan/Humana-Paredes just won the champion at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia and they were on the World Tour podium multiple times in 2017.

 

Xiamen Open is the first tournament for Claes and Hochevar playing together and they entered the final after battling all the way from the qualification round.

 

The American duo took the lead in the first set, but Pavan/Humana-Paredes, world ranking number one, played consistently and never fell far behind. Tight blocking from the 1.96-meters-tall Pavan at net gave Claes/Hochevar a hard time.

 

"It means a lot for us to prove that we can keep winning and it wasn't just a fluke. To have back to back gold medals and to be able to play at this level consistently and come out on top, it's huge for us," said Humana-Paredes.

 

It's been a long month for the Canadians, but also a happy and rewarding month. "We put everything we could in Commonwealth. We had a lot of battles to get us here and we're focusing on every point, executing well and staying on the top of the game here in Xiamen. We hope to keep it through the season," said Pavan.

 

Pavan used to play in Shanghai indoor volleyball team for two seasons and she told Xinhua that she had lots of good memories in China. "Now I'll add one more big sweet memory here in Xiamen. This is what we trained for, our goal for the season was to win more golds and this is one to add to our collection."

 

The bronze medal match saw Australian pair Mariafe Del Solar Artacho/Taliqua Clancy up against Eduarda Santos Lisboa/Agatha Bednarczuk from Brazil.

 

The Australian ladies entered Xiamen off the back of silver at Commonwealth Games while Agatha/Duda currently rank number six in the world and no strangers to the FIVB podiums, winning silver at the Hamburg World Tour Finals in 2017.

 

Finally, Artacho Del Solar/Clancy earned their first bronze at the FIVB World Tour four-star, 2-0 (21-18, 21-17).

 

"We definitely knew we had to bring our best. Agatha and Duda are one of the top five teams in the world. They're very physical and they have great ball control." said Clancy, "This bronze is just the beginning. It's awesome that we could move this far in such a short period of time. We want to develop and grow our game this year and to get some success along the way."

 

[ Web editor:Wu Jianhan, Robin Wang    Source:Xinhua ]