Qatar's Jefferson and Cherif aiming for home gold

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Gold medallists Cherif Younousse (left) and Jefferson Santos of Qatar with their Kish Island Open winners’ trophy.

Doha: Qatari pair of Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse will aiming to show their home fans why they are enjoying a growing reputation on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour when the $75000 Qatar Open kicks from tomorrow on the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy courts at the Al Gharafa Stadium.

As the host nation for the FIVB Qatar Open in Doha Qatar has two men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for the event.

Qatar’s men’s main draw teams are eighth-seeded Jefferson/Cherif and 24th-seeded Julio Cesar Do Nascimento Jr and Ahmed Tijan.

“It’s a big year for us and we’re keen to garner as many points as possible” Pereira said.

The pair won their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medals at the Kish Island Open in February after first serving notice of their potential when they reached the quarter-finals of the Netherlands 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.

“I’m really optimistic as we’ve had some great results against strong opponents this season.”

The Qatar Open medal matches will be played on April 8 with the winning team sharing the $11000 first-place prize and 500 points the silver $8000 and 450 points the bronze $6000 and 400 points and fourth place $4500 and 450 points.

The two previous Qatar Open’s were won by German teams - Tim Holler and Jonas Schroder in 2014 and Markus Bockermann and Lars Fluggen in 2015.

Bockermann and Fluggen will be back to defend their gold that they won in November 2015 in the earlier portion of the 2015-16 World Tour calendar.

Bockermann and Fluggen will face stiff competition to defend their title though. The USA will be represented by Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson who are ranked fifth in the FIVB Olympic Rankings and 2015 silver medallists Ty Bourne and John Hyden.

Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor will be confident mood after they won their first World Tour golds at the Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam. The pair won FIVB World Championships gold at U19 U21 and U23 and gold in Rio served noticed that they are beginning to fulfil their potential.

Italy also send two strong pairs; Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula showed that they are approaching their best by finishing fourth at the Vitoria Open. London 2012 Olympians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo will be fighting hard for Olympic points to ensure they take part at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games and served notice that they are nearing their best by winning silver at the Vitoria Open at the end of March.

“A shame about the final but we’re heading back to Italy with a silver” Lupo wrote on his Facebook page. “Next stop Qatar.”

The FIVB Qatar Open is a men’s only event with 32 main draw teams.

It will start with a qualification tournament tomorrow to determine the final eight spots in the 32-team main draw followed by two days of round robin pool play. The top three teams in the eight pools (24 total teams) will advance from pool play to the single-elimination knockout rounds. Pool play will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday will be the single elimination rounds with the quarterfinals also on Thursday.

The semi-finals and medal matches and awarding ceremony will conclude the event on Friday evening.

As needed country quota playoff matches will be played on Sunday to determine the final teams in Monday’s qualification tournament.

The FIVB Qatar Open will be the third all-time men’s FIVB event will be held at Al Gharafa Stadium and the second in the 2015/2016 FIVB World Tour.The Doha stop is the first of eight straight weeks of men’s events on the FIVB World Tour followed by tournaments in China (Xiamen and Fuzhou) Brazil (Fortaleza) Russia (Sochi and Moscow) Turkey (Antalya) and the United States (Cincinnati).

So come Monday 20 of the world’s best men’s Beach Volleyball duos will be seeking to enhance their dreams of playing in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The Peninsula