Maverick Hatch of Comox and Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill are the new men's Canadian beach volleyball champions.
Sunday at the 2012 Volleyball Canada Beach Nationals at Spanish Banks Beach in Vancouver, Hatch and Schachter edged Chaim Schalk of Red Deer and Matt Zbyszewski of Toronto 19-21, 21-16, 18-16.
In the bronze medal match, Christian Redmann of Toronto and Ben Saxton of Calgary defeated Sam Pedlow of Barrie and Grant O’Gorman of Toronto 21-15, 21-19.
It was the second notable pairing of a Comox athlete and a Richmond Hill athlete in the past few weeks. Martin Reader of Comox and Josh Binstock of Richmond Hill were in London, England recently for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Hatch and Schachter dropped only one match early in the tournament before winning two straight elimination matches en route to the final. Last year, Hatch and Schachter also made the final at nationals, settling for silver.
Only days after returning from London, Binstock also participated in the tournament minus his Olympics playing partner Reader, who was resting an elbow injury picked up in London.
Binstock and nationals partner Steve Gotch won their first match, before losing their next two; eliminating them from the tournament.