Qatar’s Ahmed Tijan (right) and Cherif Younousse pose with their trophies after winning the 2019 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships final against hosts China in Maoming, yesterday.
Qataris Ahmed Tijan and Cherif Younousse retained the 2019 Asian Senior Beach Volleyball Championships after a comfortable 2-0 victory over hosts China in Maoming, 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 Chinese top seeds Gao Peng and Li Yang 2-0 (21-13 21-18) in the highly-anticipated showdown which lasted 33 minutes.
Initially, 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’s victory in Maoming stretched the Qatar’s invincibility in the Asian meet to two times in a row and it also sent an ominous sign to the 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.
Eighth at the World Tour ranking, Ahmed/Cherif, who did not lose a set to their respective rivals in the Asian meet in Maoming, captured 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 play-off, 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.
