March 24, 2024: Canada’s Heather Bansley and Sophie Bukovec earned a silver medal today at the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Recife Challenge tournament in Brazil.

Latvia's Anastasija Samoilova and Tina Graudina won the gold-medal match 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) over the Canadians on centre court this afternoon.

Canada came up from the qualifying round to have an almost perfect tournament, including a 2-0 win the semis earlier today over Ittlinger/Borger of Germany.

Canada’s men’s main draw entry in this Challenge tournament, Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing, finished a solid fifth after being eliminated in the quarterfinals on Saturday by Cuba.

Many of the teams competing in Brazil are earning important points towards Paris 2024 Olympic berths. In each gender, 17 spots will be obtained through the Olympic ranking until the June 9 deadline and high-level Beach Pro Tour events offer points towards that ranking.

Brazil hosts another Challenge event next weekend in Saquarema.

Also on Sunday, Canadians Jake MacNeil and Alex Russell won the gold medal at the Beach Pro Tour Futures event in Coolangatta, Gold Coast, Australia.

Third seeds in the tournament, the pair beat Australian team Paul Burnett and Jack Pearse in straight sets (21-19, 21-14) in the gold-medal match.

MacNeil told Volleyball Australia: "We got second place here two years ago, so we felt like we needed to come back and get redemption. This is our absolute favourite beach, the people showed up and we’re just speechless right now.

"Alex makes my job super easy, he was an absolute monster in today’s final and he made my job easy. We’re just so grateful."

Beach Pro Tour site: 
https://en.volleyballworld.com/beachvolleyball/competitions/beach-pro-tour/

Photo: CBV & Volleyball Australia (below) 

Volleyball Canada Media contact:
Jackie Skender
Mobile: 1.613.794.7676