Gulf Times
Qataris Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse head to Hamburg next month for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Germany buoyed with confidence after their successful title defence at the 2019 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships yesterday. Second-seeds and reigning champions Ahmed and Cherif completely smashed Chinese dreams of ending the nine-year men’s title drought in the Asian meet after overpowering top seeds Gao Peng and Li Yang 2-0 (21-13 21-18) in the highly-anticipated showdown which lasted 33 minutes. China had set its sights on landing the men’s title at the Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships for the first time in nine years. Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin handed China the last gold medal in the 2010 Asian meet at home in Haikou, but since then no Chinese team captured the men’s title. The Ahmed/Cherif victory in Maoming stretched Qatar’s invincibility in the Asian meet to two times in a row and it also sent an ominous sign to Asian beach volleyball that the promising duo prove to be the strongest rivals to beat in any Asian competition in a few more years to come.
A pleased Younousse commented after the prize distribution ceremony, “We’re very delighted and proud to bring the Asian title home once again. We want the thank our family, friends and the association, especially the President Ali Ghanim al-Kuwari, Secretary-General Yousef Kano and QVA beach volleyball vice-chairman Mohammed Salem al Kuwari, who really supported us right from the first day. “We have been out on the Tour for more than two weeks. The final particularly was challenging as the Chinese players had a huge local backing. But our experience on the World Tour, which is certainly much tougher than the Asian one, helped us piled pressure on the opponents and win the second back-to-back Asian title,” Younousse added. Eighth at the World Tour ranking, Ahmed/Cherif, who did not lose a set to their respective rivals in the Asian meet in Maoming, cap
tured the gold medal at the last year’s Asian Games in Indonesia apart from taking bronze at the last month’s FIVB World Tour 4-star in Xiamen, China and finishing fifth place at home in the FIVB World Tour 4-star in Doha in March. Gao and Li also performed well in their career, winning back-to-back
Asian Tour Samila Open in Songkhla, Thailand (2018 and 2019) and claimed gold medal at the 2018 FIVB World Tour 2-star in Singapore aside from the 9th place at the World Tour 4-star in Xiamen, China last month. Gao/Li and Ahmed/Cherif will take part in the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships between June 28 to July 7 in Hamburg, Germany and both sides are expected to make a positive impact among the world’s best. In the third-place playoff , Chinese third seeds Wu Jiaxin/Ha Likejiang restored their pride after beating Aussies Cole Durant/Damien Schumann 2-0 (21-19 21-16) to pick up bronze. Home fans had experienced repeated failure and disappointment when top seeds Wang Fan and Xia Xinyi found title-holders Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar from Australia an impossible nut to crack. The Chinese duo went down in hardfought two-set thriller 15-21 30-32 in the women’s final clash.Crowd favourites Wang and Xia stayed unbeaten without losing a set in the tournament until they suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of second-seeds Clancy and Artacho Del Solar on Sunday. Wan and Xia captured gold medal at the last year’s Asian Games in Indonesia aside from winning the title at the last month’s Asian Tour Samila Open in Songkhla. Wang alone had already finished second for two times in succession in the Asian meet.