Olympics-Beach Volleyball-Brazil beat Canada in thriller to win women's gold

By Rohith Nair

PARIS (Reuters) - Brazil's Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Lisboa beat Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson 2-1 to win the Olympic women's beach volleyball gold at the iconic venue in front of the Eiffel Tower on Friday.

In the bronze medal match, Switzerland's Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner beat Australia's silver medallists from Tokyo, Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, in straight sets.

With the shimmering lights on Paris's most famous monument serving as the perfect backdrop and thumping music at the temporary arena between every point, Brazil's women won their second gold in the sport and first since 1996 when beach volleyball made its debut at the Atlanta Games.

"I'm so, so happy, I don't believe it's happened," she said. "It's very special, it's a dream that's come true.

"The girls (Sandra Pires and Jackie Silva in 1996) made history and we are very grateful because they started it. But now we also have to write our own story."

Duda and Ramos are the top-ranked duo in the world and they underlined their credentials as favourites with a superlative performance and a roaring crowd backing them while Canada also took home their first medal in the sport.

Although the roaring Brazilian fans clad in golden yellow outnumbered the Canadians, it was the North American duo that raced into a 13-7 lead in the opening set before Ramos got the crowd going with two consecutive blocks at the net.

Ramos also enthralled the crowd with some soccer skills, using her head and chest to good effect to keep the ball alive as Brazil staged a comeback. After six set points between them, it was Brazil who finally took the first set.

Canada bounced right back as the pair communicated well off the ball and found the right corners of the court to score points as Brazil seemed to tire and made errors, with Duda's ball going long on set point to level the tie.

Tempers flared at one point in the deciding set, but the DJ played John Lennon's "Imagine" to calm things down as the crowd sang along and the athletes smiled and carried on before Brazil triumphed 26-24 12-21 15-10.

"It happens in matches, everyone tries to win, but now everything is OK," Ramos said.

"We have a lot of respect for them. We talked on the court (to resolve it)."

Switzerland won the bronze with a 21-17 21-15 victory over Australia.

The Australian duo could not find solutions when the 6-foot 3-inch Huberli got involved near the net as the Swiss finished the match with 14 points, including four block points, while creative Brunner scored 13.

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Ed Osmond)