Draw held for 2022 FIVB Men’s World Championship

Moscow- Qatar were drawn in Pool B along with world no. 1 Brazil, former world champions Japan and two-time runners-up Cuba for next year’s FIVB Men’s World Championship. The official draw ceremony held in Moscow on Thursday determined the pools and venues of the first phase of the tournament which will take place from August 26 to September 11 across a total of 10 cities in Russia. The other Asian nations China and Iran were pitted in Pool E and F respectively. China will face Italy, Canada and Turkey in Pool E in the first round of the tournament while Asian champions Iran will meer Argentina, Netherlands and Egypt. The hosts of the event, Volleyball Federation of Russia (VFR) will open the World Championship campaign against reigning African champions Tunisia on August 26 at Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. Alongside Tunisia, VFR will also face Serbia and Puerto Rico in Pool A which (other than the opening match) will be hosted in Moscow. Reigning back-to-back world champions Poland (in 2014 and 2018), meanwhile, have been placed in Pool C, to be held in the city of Novosibirsk, where they will meet USA, Mexico and Bulgaria. Legendary volleyball heroes Lyubov Sokolova, Ekaterina Gamova and Taras Khtey of Russia, alongside Vladimir Grbic of Serbia were all involved in determining the fate of the participating teams, as they drew the lots from the bowls. Earlier, four-time Olympic medallist Sergei Tetyukhin and former captain of the Russian national team presented the trophy of the 2022 World Championship. The 24 participating teams were drawn into six pools of four each for the preliminary phase of the competition.

QOC attends 33rd Meeting of GCC Council of Olympic Committees

Doha- (QNA) – The Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) participated in 33rd Meeting of GCC Council of Olympic Committees held via videoconferencing on Thursday. HE QOC Secretary-General Jassim bin Rashid Al Buenain represented the QOC in the meeting. The heads of the GCC Olympic committees expressed their sincere thanks and gratitude to the GCC leaders for their efforts to support the youth of the GCC countries and to enhance the GCC joint action. The Council agreed to adopt the regulations for a working group to follow up the implementation of the strategic plan for the development of joint Gulf action in the field of sports. It also approved the proposal to change the time of the plan to be from 2022 until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and to include the Gulf tournaments and Olympics in the plan to turn from a short-term strategic plan to a medium-term strategic plan. The meeting dealt with many topics on the agenda including following-up the implementation of the directives of the GCC leaders, the topics related to following-up the implementation of the Al Ula Declaration and the decisions issued by the Supreme Council at its 41st session. (QNA)

ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships begin

DOHA - Qatar’s men’s team beat UAE and Mongolia but failed to qualify for the knockout stages after losing to Saudi Arabia in the team competition on the opening day of the Asian Table Tennis Championships at the Lusail Sports Hall on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Qatar women’s team lost both their group matches to Uzbekistan and Mongolia. The quarter-final matches will be held today. In the men’s event, South Korea will meet with Hong Kong, while Iran take on India. Japan and Chinese Taipei, who received a bye, will know their opponents after the end of the group stage matches today morning. In the women’s team event, Hong Kong take on Chinese Taipei, while Thailand face Korea in the quarter-finals. Japan and Singapore await their last eight opponents.

ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships continue in style

Doha: Places in the main draw at stake, equally places in the 2022 World Team Championships in Chengdu also at stake; that was very much the focal point for outfits in the first division of the men’s team event at the 2021 ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships in Doha on Wednesday 29th September. Six groups the previous day; those finishing in first places entered a knock-out stage in which the two finalists joined the six who had gained main draw direct entries. Moreover, 10 teams qualified for the 2022 World Team Championships, the top six seeds guaranteed a place. Thus, the fixtures that started the day had an importance of note; win and a place in Chengdu beckoned, lose and you were on the reserve list, nothing guaranteed. Represented by Ali Alkhadrawi, Naif Al-Jadai and Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi, Saudi Arabia recorded a 3-2 win against the Uzbekistan outfit formed by Abdulaziz Anorboev, Mukhammad Uktamboev and Zokhid Kenjaev. The player to cause the problems for Saudi Arabia was Zokhid Kenjaev. He accounted for both Naif Al-Jadai (11-8, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9) and Ali Alkhadrawi (5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7, 11-3). Hard fought, at the same stage, matters were less stressful for the Kazakhstan trio formed by Kirill Gerassimenko, Aidos Kenzhigulov and Alan Kurmangaliyev. They recorded a 3-0 win against Bahrain’s Salman Abuhamda, Rashed Rashed and Mohamed Saleh. A top 10 finish achieved, for Kazakhstan with no changes to the selection in the contest to determine a main draw place, a 3-1 victory was recorded against Thailand’s Nanpat Thanmathikom, Sitisak Nuchchart and Puripong Saelee. Once again as throughout the tournament, Kirill Gerassimenko remained steadfast. He accounted for both Puripong Saelee (12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5) and Nanpat Thanmathikom (10-12, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8). Conversely, with the same three players in action, Saudi Arabia experienced defeat at the hands of the Singapore combination formed by Clarence Chew, Josh Shao Han Chua and Pang Yew En Koen. Architect of the Singaporean success was Clarence Chew; he beat Naif Al-Jadi (11-6, 5-11, 12-14, 11-8, 11-7) and Ali Alkhadrawi (11-5, 11-6, 11-5). Both in the lower half of the draw, Kazakhstan meets Japan; Singapore opposes Chinese Taipei. Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw, seeded teams in action, matters have advanced to the semi-final round; Korea Republic opposes India. Impressively, with Sharath Kamal Achanta, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran on duty, India recorded a 3-1 win against Iran’s Nima Alamian, Noshad Alamiyan and Amir Hossein Hodaei; by the same margin the Korea Republic outfit comprising Jang Woojin, Lee Sangsu and Lim Jonghoon overcame Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit, Lam Siu Hang and Wong Chun Ting. Backbone of Korean Republic success was Jang Woojin, he beat both Lam Siu Hang (11-9, 9-11, 15-13, 12-10) and Wong Chun Ting (11-8, 12-14, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9); for India the man in form was Sharath Kamal Achanta. He accounted for both Nima Alamian (11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5) and Noshad Alamiyan (11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9). The men’s team quarter-finals will be played on Thursday 30th September, the semi-finals and final on Friday 1st October. The Qatari men’s team punched their way through some tough contests to qualify for the play-off for the 13th spot in the ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships. Overcoming a challenge from Sri Lanka (3-1), Qatar were unstoppable against Kuwait (3-0) as they set up a date with Jordan on Thursday. Ahmad Khalil Al Mohannadi once again delivered. He beat two Sri Lankan players – Chameera Ginige and Pitiyage Silva – before going the distance against Kuwait’s Jaber Al Balhan. The experienced player called it a ‘tough day.’ Meanwhile, Qatar’s women’s team lost 1-3 to the Maldives before beating Nepal 3-1 to place 17th.

FIVB Volleyball World Championship draw scheduled for Thursday

DOHA- The draw ceremony of  the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship Russia 2022 will be conducted on Thursday, as the  top world volleyball event will  run from  August 26  to  September 11, 2022, with the participation of Team Qatar. Team Qatar confidently booked its spot in the finals of  2022 Men’s volleyball world Championship after being classified in the 20th place in the world rankings. In a pre- statement on Monday  and ahead of Thursday’s draw ceremony, Mr. Ali Bin Ghanem Al Kuwari, President of the Qatar and West Asia Federations, Vice-President of the Asian Confederation, and member of the Board of Directors of Beach Volleyball at the (FIVB) has confirmed that team Qatar did  its neccessary preparations to compete against top ranked- world volleyball giants in this event. “ We are very excited to see team Qatar fight for top honors and honor the Arab volleyball sport along with  Egypt and Tunisia” Added Mr. Al Kuwari. 

Asian Table Tennis Championships to begin in Doha on Tuesday

Doha: The 25th edition of ITTF-ATTU Asian Table Tennis Championships will start at Lusail Arena on Tuesday with the participation of 194 players representing 30 Asian countries. To conclude on October 05, the event will serve as a qualification tournament for the World Championships in China next year. Team Qatar will be represented by nine players including Ahmed Khalil Al Mohannadi, Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, Ahmed Muthanna Al Awlaki, Fahd Al Mughni, Maha Flamerzi, Aya Magdy, Maha Ali, Maryam Ali, and Shawq Abdullah. It is noteworthy that Qatar had won the honor of hosting the Asian Championship for the second time in a row in its history after the 2000 edition as the first Arab and Gulf country, after withdrawal of China and India. On the other hand, the Qatari team table tennis duo (under 13 years) Ahmed Eid and Sultan Al Kuwari continued their progress in the world rankings issued by the International Federation of the game monthly as Ahmed Eid came in sixth place globally for the month of September, after gaining 156 new points, to rise 30 places at once while his colleague Sultan Khalid Al Kuwari ranked eighth globally after scoring 124 points, to rise 14 places from the classification of the previous month.