Brandie Wilkerson and Sophie Bukovec of Toronto, Ontario are in the women’s gold medal game of the 2022 World Beach Volleyball Championship in Rome, Italy. On Saturday, Wilkerson and Bukovec defeated the German duo of Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillmann 21-15, 15-21, 15-12.
Wilkerson and Bukovec will now face the Brazilian duo of Duda Santos Lisboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos in the gold medal match. Santos Lisboa and Silva Ramos defeated Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre in the other semi-final, 21-19, 21-13.
In the win for Wilkerson and Bukovec on Saturday, the Canadian team showed exceptional resiliency after losing the second set. They entered the final set without momentum, but bounced back in the deciding set to come away with a big win.
Wilkerson generated 20 points, while Bukovec had 14. Wilkerson had 15 points from the attack, three points from blocks, and had two aces. Bukovec had 11 points from the attack and two aces.
In the men’s gold medal match of the 2022 World Beach Volleyball Championships, Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sorum of Norway will face Renato Carvalho and Vitor Felipe of Brazil. Mol and Sorum are the reigning Olympic gold medalists from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, and won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Hamburg.
