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Pavan, Humana-Paredes reach beach volleyball final in Edmonton

CBC

Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan delighted a partisan home crowd with a straight sets victory over Japanese duo Akiko Hasegawa and Azusa Futami to reach the final of the FIVB World Tour event in Edmonton on Saturday.

The Olympic bound Canadians breezed past their opponents in the first set but had to battle it out in the second to record a 2-0 (21-16, 22-20) win and book their spot in Friday's final.

Pavan and Humana-Paredes will be looking to return to the top of the podium after a rare dip in form saw them bounced in the quarter-finals, earlier this month, from the Gstaad Major.

Nevertheless, it's been a banner year for the Canadian Duo. Earlier in July they secured their spot in the Tokyo Games with a victory at the world beach volleyball championship in Germany.

WATCH | Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan take on Japan

Tokyo 2020 will see Pavan, who hails from Kitchener Ont., participate in her third Olympics, while Toronto native Humana-Paredes will be making her Summer Games debut.

The duo are in their third season together, and will face Americans Betsi Flint and Emily Day, who defeated Becchara Palmer and Nicole Laird of Australia 2-0 (21-15, 21-12) earlier in the day to also reach tomorrow's final in Edmonton.

WATCH | Betsi/Day defeat Palmer/Laird to advance to women's final:

Canada's men equally dominant

On the men's side, Canada was equally dominant, defeating their Italian opponents 2-0 (25-11, 21-17) to advance to the finals.

The duo of Grant O'Gorman of Scarborough, Ont. and Calgary native Ben Saxton had little difficulty in dispatching Alex Ranghieri and Marco Caminati.

WATCH | Canada's O'Gorman/Saxton battle Italy's Ranghieri/Caminati

The Canadians will now play the Swiss duo of Nico Beeler and Marco Krattiger who advanced in the other semifinal with a 2-0 (25-23, 21-13) win over Americans Stafford Slick and William Allen.

CBCSports.ca will have live online coverage of the finals on Friday, starting with the men's final at 5 p.m. ET and the women's at 6 p.m. ET .