Beach volleyball: Gutsy Qatar make history

8/11/2016 9:15:46 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar";s Jefferson and Cherif Younousse celebrate their victory against Austria at beach volleyball qualifying match in Rio de Janeiro, yesterday.

Rio de Janeiro: After losing their first Pool F beach volleyball match to a team from the United States in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar found success on Copacabana by winning their final two pool contests to advance to the elimination rounds, making history on their Games debut

After upsetting Spaniards Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera in three sets on Monday, the Asian Continental Cup qualifiers rallied to post a 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-12) win in 57 minutes here yesterday mid-day over European Continental Cup winners Alexander Huber and Robin Seidl of Austria.

The match was the second international meeting between the two teams as Huber and Seidl posted a three-set win over Jefferson and Cherif last September at the Xiamen Open in China.

The Qatar pair, which had four 25ths and a 17th in their last five FIVB World Tour events, won an international event in mid-February on Kish Island in Iran. One of the Qatar pair";s 25ths was in mid-March on Copacabana in the Rio Grand Slam where Jefferson and Cherif advanced to the Main Draw with two qualifying wins before losing three-straight pool play matches to teams from Chile, Russia and the United States that are competing in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

With the win, the 27-year old Jefferson and the 21-year old Cherif advance as the No. 2 team from Pool F with Gavira and Herrera finishing first in the group after defeating Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson of the United States 2-1 (21-19, 16-21, 15-7) in 56 minutes.

Despite the setback, Huber and Seidl remain in contention for a berth in the elimination rounds as the Austrians finished ahead of Gibb and Patterson in the group. Both pairs ended with a 1-2 match mark, but Huber and Seidl had a plus-five point margin as compared to the Americans"; minus-1. Although head-to-head meetings are not used to break a tie, Huber and Seidl did post a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) win Monday over Gibb and Patterson in 41 minutes.

The Americans defeated Jefferson and Cherif in an opening Rio match Saturday 2-0 (21-16, 21-16) in 35 minutes.

The Peninsula

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