Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan celebrate on the podium with silver and bronze winners of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Maldives Challenge.
Doha: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan swept away Americans Chase Budinger and Troy Field 21-17, 21-15 in the final to clinch the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Maldives Challenge title yesterday.
The victory at the Sun Island yesterday also marked the return of the Tokyo Olympics bronze winners to the podium, following a long absence by their standards since a silver winning performance at the Jurmala Elite16 in early June.
They finished ninth at the World Championships, ninth again in Gstaad – both times they were eliminated by Brazil’s Bruno and Saymon – and fifth in Paris. For four months, they went without a medal, their longest in-season drought since 2019.
Yesterday, the Qatari duo who were the pre-tournament favourites at the maiden major world-level competition hosted by the island-nation, took control over their American opponents since start of the title-clash.
The World No.7 Qatar pair took an early lead of 7-5 in the first set. Budinger and Field tried to live up to expectations after becoming the first American finalists in a top-tier event in nearly three years, fighting back to narrow the gap at 12-14 in their favour at one stage. However, the Asian Games gold medallists closed the set at 21-17.
The second set also saw a similar start, with the Qataris taking a 7-4 lead, but this time the Americans failed to match the prowess of the former World No.1 pair.
They extended the gap to 14-9 and then to 17-12 to step up closer to the title win. Cherif and Ahmed only gave away three more points to their US opponents as they closed the game at 21-15 to lift the first title in Maldives.
Earlier, Cherif and Ahmed staged a brilliant comeback to defeat Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig 15-21, 21-12, 15-13 in the semi-finals before knocking off their third American team in four matches.
Swedish Ahman and Hellvig defeated Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov and Eduard Reznik to win the bronze medal, their second medal on the Beach Pro Tour this season, to go along with victories at the European Championship and U22 European Championship.
All three medal-winners will be bound for Dubai, which will be hosting back-to-back Challenge events, with play beginning Saturday.
