Qatar's Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan celebrate their win against Lucena and Dalhausser of the US in their round of 16 match yesterday.
Tokyo: Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan reached the quarter-finals of the Tokyo 2020 men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament after beating Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser of the United States 2-1 yesterday.
At the Shiokaze Park, the Qatar duo maintained their fine run in the knockout stage with a 14-21, 21-19, 15-11 comeback win over the Americans.
“We were ready for a long game. We know each other really well. We trained in Orlando with them for about a month and a half. They know us really well. We know them really well. Even in practice, our games are always very long,” Cherif said yesterday.
“So I can say we were not expecting an easy game. Now the first step is done. We’re ready for the second step,” he added.
Tijan said: “We always keep on fighting. We play some tactics, but the main goal is to keep on fighting. We never give up. This helped us come back in the second set.”
“We never look at the score. We don’t care about the score. We always focus on the game, always focus on ourselves, not on the opponent or the score. We just have to play well and enjoy the game. It’s a pleasure for me to play against Phil and Nick. I really feel this gratitude, but at the end I also want to win. This is my main goal,” he added.
Meanwhile, World bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba of Qatar advanced to the final of 400m hurdles after clocking 47.47 in the semi-final yesterday.
Samba faces a tough task in tomorrow’s final with World record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway and American Rai Benjamin also qualifying for the showdown.
Earlier, Femi Ogunode’s hopes of clinching 100m medal ended after he failed to reach the final, posting a time of 10.17 in the semi-finals, yesterday.
Today, Asian Games gold medallist Ashraf Amgad El Seify will take part in men’s hammer throw qualification, hoping to increase Team Qatar’s medal tally in Tokyo.
El Seify participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics and finished sixth with a throw of 85.57m. He also claimed the silver medal in the 2015 and 2019 Asian Athletics Championships.
