(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Chinthana Wasala
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The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Qatar's Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will take on Italians Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava in their opening match at the Paris 2024 Games.
The Pool A match will take place on July 27 at the foot of the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, starting at midnight (Qatar time).
Cheirf and Tijan, who three years ago clinched the country's first medal in beach volleyball, are pooled alongside the world's number one men's pair, Sweden's David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, as well as Australia's Izac Carracher.
Cherif and Ahmed qualified for the Paris Games, thanks to their impressive world ranking. The former world No.1 pair, Cherif and Ahmed are currently ranked 14th in the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).
This will be Qatar's third appearance in beach volleyball at Olympics as the top Asian pair aims to excel among the best in the world.
After a brief partnership with Ahmed in 2014, Cherif qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics alongside Brazilian-born Jefferson Santos Pereira, and reached the Round of 16. Then in 2018, Cherif and Ahmed teamed up again for the goal of qualifying for Tokyo 2020.
Following the reunion, Cherif and Ahmed won the first Asian Games titles for Qatar at the Jakarta 2018 Games, and later at the Hangzhou 2023 Games and the AVC Asian Championships.
They also won silver medals in the four-a-side tournament at the Doha-hosted ANOC World Beach Games a year later, along with another continental victory.
While gearing up for the Games, Cherif and Tijan defeated Olympic–bound American pair Chase Budinger and Miles Evans in their opening match at the Elite16 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour encounter at Gstaad, Switzerland, yesterday.
The pair clinched the match in straight sets with scores of 21-17 and 21-18. However, the Qatari pair later went down fighting to the Brazilian World No.2 duo of Andre Loyola and George Wanderley with scores of 19-21 and 17-21.
Today, Cherif and Ahmed will take on USA's Tim Brewster and Logan Webber in their third and final Pool B match of the Main Draw.
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