Gstaad, Switzerland, July 08, 2017: Canadians Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON) and Melissa Humana-Paredes (Toronto) secured their second medal in a week as they crushed host Switzerland’s hopes of a podium finish. (The Canadians won gold at the Porec Major last week on Canada Day.)
“We are so happy to have followed up our gold in Porec with another podium performance in Gstaad. We knew that this would be a tough week, but we played very consistently. We are obviously disappointed with our semi-final performance, but we are proud with how we were able to rebound from that match and beat the home team for the bronze. Thank you so much to everyone who was following and cheering from home!!”
Swiss fans started the day hoping home team Anouk Vergé-Dépré and Joana Heidrich could end a 17-year wait for a home gold medal. However, the North American duo were too strong in the fight for third place, winning in straights sets 21-15, 21-12.
In the women's gold medal match, Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude of Germany denied Brazilians Larissa Franca Maestrini and Talita Da Rocha Antunes a historic third successive title.
Sam Pedlow (Barrie, ON) and Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) had a dramatic quarter-final match against Brazil's Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola, eventually losing 2-1 (17- 21, 21- 12, 20-18), and were Canada's top finishing men's team at fifth.
Canadian results:
Women
3rd Pavan/Humana-Paredes
5th May/Pischke
9th Wilkerson/Bansley
17th Gordon/Saxton
Men
5th Pedlow/Schachter
17th Saxton/Schalk
25th Plantinga/O'Gorman
With reports by www.swatchmajorseries.com
For more on the World Tour, see http://worldtour.2017.fivb.com
