Younousse and Tijan win bronze in Xiamen
Xiamen, China: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan won the bronze medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Xiamen Open after a come from behind victory against Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Adrian Ignacio Carambula Raurich (13-21, 21-15, 15-10).
The Italians were in control of the first set taking an early five-point lead and pulling away after a number of costly Qatari errors. The second set was a different story and a run of big blocks from Younousse pushed Qatar ahead 15-8 and sent the match into the tie-break.
In the third set, Younousse and Tijan came out powerfully and took back control of the match and earn their third FIVB bronze medal.
“Thank goodness we finished the game, it was tough in the beginning, but we managed to come back in the second and third, but it wasn’t easy. Especially with this weather and the condition. It was a tough game against them and we were feeling a little bit tired from yesterday. But we were so focused on the third place so that helped us to come back after the first set,” said Younousse.
“We just focused because it’s not easy with this kind of sky-ball, it’s very hard with the wind, you have to concentrate a lot. But fortunately, we could receive the balls. They are such a good team, but we gave 100 per cent and got the results and getting this bronze medal is so good for us,” said Tijan.
Russia’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy won the title after defeating Spain’s Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Adrián Gavira Collado, 2-0 (21-19, 21-13).