Australia's Olympic beach volleyball girls will play for a gold medal after cruising through to the final with a straight-sets win over Latvia
- Taliqua Clancy & Mariafe Artacho del Solar won Olympic semi-final on Thursday
- Beat European champions Latvia in straight sets to progress to Olympic decider
- Clancy and del Solar earlier shocked world champions Canada in quarter-final
- The two beach volleyballers only formed as a professional pair back in 2017
- Find out the latest Tokyo Olympic news including schedule, medal table and results right here
Australian beach volleyballers Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy are one match away from Olympic gold medal glory after beating Latvia in their semi-final on Thursday morning.
The girls held their nerve on the sand in Tokyo to win in straight sets, 23-21, 21-13.
'Australia, they can't do anything wrong right now,' former Olympian Kerri Pottharst said in commentary.
The impressive result guarantees Australia its first major beach volleyball medal since Natalie Cook and Pottharst won at Sydney 2000 on the sand at Bondi.
Taliqua Clancy (left) and Mariafe Artacho del Solar celebrate after beating Latvia in their semi-final on Thursday at the Tokyo Olympics
Queensland raised Taliqua Clancy was immense in Australia's semi-final beach volleyball triumph at the Tokyo Games
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar (right) overcame a slow start to get the better of their Latvian opponents in their beach volleyball semi-final on Thursday
US pair April Ross and Alix Klineman await in the final from 12.30pm (AEST) on Friday afternoon.
Ross and Klineman defeated Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre 21-12, 21-11 to progress to book a match with the Aussie girls.
'We came here for gold, it's going to be a good game in the final against USA, but we always back our game so we're ready for it,' a fired up del Solar told Channel 7.
Meanwhile Clancy, Australia's first ever Indigenous beach volleyballer, was elated after overcoming a nervous start before running away with the result in tandem with del Solar versus Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka.
'We always knew that we were going to be in this position (going for gold),' a jubilant Clancy said.
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'It was just awesome for us to know that we took another step forward here today.
'We stayed really patient, we stayed strong and showed that's our game. Just so proud of Maria and our whole team.'
Incredibly, the Aussie girls only formed as a professional duo on the sand back in 2017.
'We connected straight away. We won our first three international events. So we knew we had something there that we needed to continue to explore,' del Solar told Sporting News recently.
'T(Taliqua) and I have a really special chemistry on the court. We feel each other and we are on the same page. We have the same goals and we balance each other really well.'
Clancy also grew up a long way from the beach, in Kingaroy in rural Queensland, while del Solar, who was born in Peru, is from Sydney's north shore.
US pair April Ross and Alix Klineman await in the final for Aussie duo Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy (pictured) from 12.30pm (AEST) on Friday afternoon
Taliqua Clancy was elated after combining with Mariafe Artacho del Solar to progress to the final of the women's beach volleyball in Tokyo
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