Qatar’s Younousse, Tijan top pool after third win
Hamburg, Germany: Qatar's Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan defeated Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle of Belgium to secure top spot in Pool D of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Hamburg, Germany, on Monday.
The Qatari pair, who were already assured of a place in the round of 32 needed just about 30 minutes to win 21-15, 21-15. The 21st seeds Belgians bowed out of the championships.
“Belgium are a pretty good team, but I think we played really well and kept our side out stable all match,” Tijan explained. “We feel great now, to top our pool at the World Championships really means a lot.”
For Younousse, the team’s latest performance has put them in a good position to perform a deep run in Hamburg.
“It was a great confidence booster for us, but we need to have a new mindset now that elimination starts because our jobs here are not done yet,” the blocker said. “It was great to have these three victories and the way is open for us to keep going. If we keep playing like this, we’ll be a nightmare for any opponent.”
In the other match of the pool, Italians Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi downed Czechs Ondrej Perusic and David Schweiner 21-18, 22-20. With that, the late-entrants finished second and are also guaranteed a place in the elimination round.
The Czechs finished third and will need to wait for the conclusion of the other pools to know if they advance automatically or if they will need to go through the lucky losers round. The Belgians are eliminated.
