Qatar Olympic Committee
With the maiden edition of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Beach Games gradually coming to an end, the champions of the women's events and one of the men's were crowned on Friday.
The two-week tournament, which rounds up on Saturday, is being held at the Aspire Park in Doha. Competitions were held in four events for the male and female categories- beach basketball 3X3, beach volleyball, beach handball, and beach football.
In the women's Beach Basketball 3X3, Qatar B, who have had a smooth sail throughout the two-week event, defeated Doha 14-11 to emerge the inaugural champions.
En route the final, Qatar B had defeated Qatar A 11-9 in Thursday's semi-final while Doha trounced Hustlers 20-3 in the other encounter.
In the women's beach handball, Al Shaqab were crowned champions after winning in shootouts against Yasminat of Tunisia while the football event witnessed some fantastic display of skills from the ladies as two matches were held - the third-place and the final.
Seashore were crowned the champions after defeating 22 Youth Initiative 2-1 while Team A7, who were denied a place in the final by Seashore, were too strong for Qatar team in their third-place match. The A7 ladies won 3-0 to emerge the bronze medalists.
In the other final played in the women's category, Al Maha, parading some of the national team players, trounced Al Amal 2-0 to emerge champions of the women's beach volleyball.
In the final of the men's beach basketball 3X3, on the other hand, Al Ahlam withstood a late resurgence from Al Wakrah to narrowly win 20-19 to emerge as champions.
The game was one of the most exciting matches of the tournament as the two teams were seemingly evenly matched and both having skilful players who showcased their stuff to the excitement of the capacity crowd who thronged the court.
Meanwhile, three finals are on the card on Saturday - the last day of the tournament.
First up, is the final of the men's beach handball with Al Edaid going up against Al Khafji at 4:00 pm while the beach football featuring Al Shahaniya against Doha following after that.
The last event of the day is the beach volleyball with two matches - the third place and the final scheduled to take place.
In the third-place match, Zekreet will confront Lusail while the final game will be between Al Adaam versus Al Nojoom.
Over 500 male and female athletes participated in the first edition of the QOC Beach Games, a legacy event from the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games.?