Hunt for elusive top podium spot continues for Aussie duo

IT was not the day for Australia’s women’s beach volleyball team, with their enduring pursuit of a gold medal to continue after they were beaten by Canada in the Commonwealth Games final.

Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar saw off two match points against the Canadians to claim the first set 24-22.

It was a hot contest in the second as well with Australia leading by two, then trailing by three, before Canada clinched it 21-17 to send the match into a deciding third set.

Clancy’s dominance up on the net and del Solar’s relentless chase for the ball kept the Australians in the game.

The drama of an illegal challenge by Canada halfway to the crucial 15 points needed to win the third set was then tempered by a round of raucous Mexican waves in the crowd.

The Canadians ultimately had three match points to play with, but only needed two to claim the match and the gold medal

The ground announcer has coopted “Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi” throughout the beach volleyball competition, turning it into “volley volley volley”, but Australia’s fans claimed it back as they screamed their support for Clancy del Solar during the medal celebrations.

Earlier in the evening, the New Zealand women had come within a point of clinching the bronze medal in the second set, before an unstoppable Vanuatu fought their way back to take the second set, and then the decider, to win the bronze.

And with that, the action at Smithfield – which just like Sydney at the 200 Olympics became the so-called party venue of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – came to an appropriately festive close.