The Qataris are set to add a lot of points to their Olympic Rankings total this week in Brazil
The Tokyo Olympic medalists are likely to gain several spots in the ranking this week
Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan’s push to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics received a significant boost on Friday, when the Qataris topped their pool in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Brasília Elite16 and advanced directly to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The Tokyo Olympic bronze medalists, who are playing just their second tournament in the year, are currently just the second team sitting above the qualification line with 7,200 points, but are now set to add at least another 760 with their quarterfinal appearance in Brazil – they Qataris could even find their way into the FIVB Olympic Rankings top ten in they continue winning over the weekend.
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After starting their Pool A campaign with a two-set win over Chileans Noe Aravena and Vicente Droguett on Thursday, Cherif and Ahmed returned to the sand at the Parque da Cidade on Friday to get another two victories.
They first upset top-seeded Dutch Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot in the tie-breaker (21-17, 21-23, 15-13) and then completed their perfect pool play campaign with a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) victory over Americans Chase Budinger and Miles Evans.
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Brasília Elite16 – Match Schedule and Results
The three other teams to top their pools in Brasília, Germany’s Nils Ehlers/Clemens Wickler, the Netherlands’ Steven van de Velde/Matthew Immers and Brazil’s Evandro Gonçalves/Arthur Lanci, are also guaranteed in the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Their opponents will come from the Round of 12 duels, which will have Chile’s Marco Grimalt/Esteban Grimalt vs. Brazil’s Andre Loyola/George Wanderley, USA’s Andy Benesh/Miles Partain vs. Boermans/De Groot, Poland’s Michal Bryl/Bartosz Łosiak vs. Budinger/Evans and the Netherlands’ Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen vs. England’s Javier Bello/Joaquin Bello.
Ágatha and Rebecca upset world champions
In the women’s event, Brazilians Ágatha Bednarczuk and Rebecca Cavalcanti continued to have strong performances for a third straight day and are yet to drop a set after five matches played at the Parque da Cidade.
Ágatha and Rebecca won their five matches in the Brasília Elite16 so far
After getting a pair of two-set victories on Wednesday’s qualifier and another sweep in the main draw on Thursday, the Olympians topped Pool B with two major wins on Friday, downing reigning European champions Nina Brunner and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland 2-0 (22-20, 28-26) and reigning world champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the United States also in straight sets (21-16, 21-15).
“We’re very happy,” Ágatha said. “Our performance in pool play was excellent and we won all three matches in straight sets against some really tough opponents. Coming from the qualifier is always a challenge and we need our determination in every match to keep going here. Skipping the Round of 12 will hopefully help us recover a little bit and get ready for the quarterfinals.”
Their compatriots Eduarda ‘Duda’ Lisboa and Ana Patrícia Ramos, in Pool A, Americans Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, in Pool C, and Dutch Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam, in Pool D, are the other pool winners, advancing directly to the quarterfinals.
The Round of 12 will have Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson/Melissa Humana-Paredes vs. Switzerland’s Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré, Latvia’s Tina Graudina/Anastasija Samoilova vs. China’s Chen Xue/Xinyi Xia, Germany’s Svenja Müller/Cinja Tillmann vs. Brazil’s Bárbara Seixas/Carol Salgado and Brazil’s Tainá Bigi/Victoria Lopes vs. Cheng/Hughes.
Saturday’s schedule in the Brazilian capital will have the Round of 12, starting at 9:00 local time (12:00 UTC), and the quarterfinals, which are set to begin at 16:00 local time (19:00 UTC). The semifinals and medal matches will end the event on Sunday.
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