Commonwealth Games 2022: Australia wins men’s beach volley gold medal

Australia beat scorching temperatures — and more importantly Canada — to give a beach volleyball stalwart another Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Chris McHugh returns a shot against Team Canada.

Winning a gold medal is a bit more of a thrill than looking at people’s teeth all day and Adelaide dentist Paul Burnett would know — he’s just claimed the Commonwealth Games beach volleyball gold.

“Dentistry is something I’m keeping in my back pocket for now,” he said. “It’s hard to get feelings like this from looking at people’s teeth.”

Burnett watched Chris McHugh win the gold for Australia at the Gold Coast Games from his couch at home, but four years down the track the debutant paired up with the veteran of the sport to win a gold of his own in Birmingham.

Gold medallists Chris McHugh and Paul Burnett.

By English standards, it was a scorcher for the final – and that’s to say nothing of the action on the court, which ended in a nailbiting third set with match point after match point.

Canada’s Sam Schachter and Daniel Dearing looked strong in the first set, winning 21-17, before Burnett and McHugh turned the tables to win by the same margin in the second.

By the electric third set, it was 40C on the sand. Not quite Tokyo, where the mercury hit 51C, but hot enough that South African first referee Giovanni Bake succumbed.

Burnett and McHugh celebrate their gold medal moment.

He was comforted by both teams, with the score locked at 12-12, as he stepped down for a second referee, New Zealand’s Tim Cleaver.

He oversaw a thrilling back and forth between the teams. With four match points, Australia had the game in their grasp before it was repeatedly snatched away by the determined Canadians. But eventually, McHugh and Burnett were too good.

They knew before anyone else, seeing up close where the ball had landed on the final match point. It wasn’t until they started celebrating on court that the crowd realised the ball was out and Australia had secured the victory.

“I was a bit shaky in the start, but Paul was good – he played really well, he served really well,” McHugh said.

“To go back to back, and for him to have his first Commonwealth Games medal – we’re proud and super thankful to everyone at home for their support.”

Aside from everything else, McHugh said he was happy his two children would each have a gold medal from him now.

From the couch to the top of the podium, Burnett said the triumph only made him and McHugh hungry for more – with the pair preparing to qualify for Paris 2024 from January next year.

“We take a lot of confidence from what we’ve done here, we’re looking to build on it and do some damage,” Burnett said.

Canada’s Schacter had a concise take on Australia’s victory, tapping McHugh on the rear as he passed by in the media zone after the match.

“F***ers,” he said good-naturedly.

CANADIAN FIGHTBACK DENIES AUSSIES GOLDEN DOUBLE

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 bested 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 — 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.

Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy compete in the final.

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 co-opted “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.

Silver medallists Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy.

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 – the so-called party venue of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham – came to an appropriately festive close.