Younousse and Tijan bag Qatar’s first gold
Hangzhou: Much to the expectations, Qatar’s top beach volleyball pair and World No. 3 Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan claimed gold and in fine style at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou on Thursday.
The Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists went through their campaign in Ningbo, China, without dropping a single set in six matches to defend the Asian Games gold, which they had won in Jakarta in 2018.
In the gold medal match on Thursdayday, the Qatari standouts secured a 2-0 (22-20, 21-16) victory over China’s Ha Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin. This was Qatar’s first gold at the Hangzhou Asiad, with the skeet mixed team featuring winning bronze.
The two medals won on Thursday took Qatar tally to four. On Wednesday, Nasser Al Attiyah won bronze in the individual skeet event, while the Qatar team picked up a silver.
Younousse and Tijan were considered overwhelming favourites and they lived up to the expectations. But they were pushed to their limits by Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin in the first set, before the Qatari pair prevailed in 24 minutes. In the second set, they jumped into an early and never relinquished the grip on the match.
Moments after their triumph, Younousse and Tijan set their eyes on winning gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “It wasn’t an easy final. It’s an honour to win consecutive gold medals at the Asian Games. We will give our best to continue winning titles for Qatar,” Tijan said.
“The first set was not easy because China was fighting and they also were playing at home. We are going to do our best in Paris, and we are hoping for different coloured medal this time,” he added.
Tijan hoped to continue title wins for Qatar as the World No.3 pair will now prepare for next month’s World Championship in Mexico. The bronze went to Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Yakovlev & Sergey Bogatu, who managed a tight 2-0 (25-23, 30-28) win over Iran’s Abbas Pourasgari & Alireza Aghajanighasab.
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