New teams ensure Canada remain a force on the sand

The only country which was represented in gold medal matches at the last two editions of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, Canada is on pace to remain among the elite of the sport after the North American nation announced the formation of two new and very strong women’s duos which are set to compete on the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.

Following August’s announcement of the split of 2019 world champions Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, Pavan will now play with Sophie Bukovec, while Humana-Paredes will partner with Brandie Wilkerson, who took silver at the World Championship earlier this year. Both teams will pursue qualification for the 2023 World Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The 36-year-old Pavan, who stands at 1.96m, and the 27-year-old Bukovec, 1.83m, will form one of the tallest partnerships in international beach volleyball. The two will start training together in the weeks ahead and are planning on first appearing together at the start of the 2023 Beach Pro Tour season.

“I am very excited to be partnering with Sophie,” Pavan, a two-time Olympian, told Volleyball World. “She is a great player and hard-working athlete who has shown a lot of skill and development over the last couple of years. I love her fighting spirit and I can’t wait to step on the court with her. Although our first objective as a team is to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, we are both incredibly motivated and have our sights set much higher than that. Of course, we will take things one step at a time, but I truly believe that we have great potential as a team.”

Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson, who are both 30, know each other well. The two were volleyball teammates at York University in Toronto between 2010 and 2014 and, in 2016, made the trip to Rio for the Olympics as Canada’s beach volleyball alternates.

The two even played a tournament together not long ago when they paired at the end of August for an event of the American AVP in Chicago, and finished second.

“We are both really excited about partnering”, Humana-Paredes told Volleyball World. “I think since our university days we both envisioned playing together at some point in our careers - we just weren't sure when that would happen. This time just seems right in both our personal and athletic lives."

Pavan and Humana-Paredes spent five years together, between 2017 and 2022, and besides the 2019 world title, they also won the 2018 and 2022 editions of the Commonwealth Games and six other international tournaments. They finished fifth at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Wilkerson, also a Tokyo Olympian, and Bukovec had a much shorter stint together, after beginning their partnership at the start of the 2022 Beach Pro Tour. In seven months together, the silver medal won at the World Championship was their best result, but they also had top-five finishes at three other events.

Quick links:
Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour
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