Alkass Digital
Qatar’s top beach volleyball pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan remained on course for their second consecutive gold medal at the Asian Games after recording an emphatic victory over Iran in the quarter-finals at Ningbo Banbianshan Beach Volleyball Centre in Ningbo, China yesterday.
While Bahman Salemi and Sina Shoukati displayed a spirited show in the quarter-final, Younousse and Tijan looked far better than their Iranian counterparts scoring a 21-17 and 21-19 victory for a place in today’s semi-finals
The Qatar pair – ranked third in the world – will now meet Kazakhstan’s Sergey Bogatu and Dmitriy Yakovlev eyeing a place in Thursday’s gold medal match.
“We are very confident of reaching the final. Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan have been in good form in the competition,” said Muhammad Salem Al Kuwari, who is heading beach volleyball team at the Games.
“The match against Iran was challenging but our pair did well to register an impressive win,” he said.
The other semi-final of the event will be played between Chinese and Iranian sides.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s volleyball team will look for a bronze medal after they went out of the title race following a 0-3 defeat to Iran in the semi-final at Linping Sports Centre yesterday.
The Al Annabi spikers fought hard in the match but Iran were a better side winning the match with a 20-25, 20-25, 22-25 score-line in one hour and 17 minutes.
Qatar will face Japan – defeated by China 3-0 in the other semi-final – in the third position play-off today.