NAGOYA, Japan : Defending champions Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan reached the quarter-finals of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games beach volleyball tournament on Tuesday with a 21-9, 21-16 victory over Vietnam.
The Qatar pair advanced in straight sets and will face Iran’s Abbas Pouraskar and Alireza Aghajani in the last eight on Wednesday.
Pouraskar and Aghajani reached the quarter-finals after beating Japan’s Juntaro Tachiya and Yusuke Ishijima 2-1.
Younousse and Tijan remain unbeaten in their bid for a third consecutive Asian Games gold medal. They topped Group A after beating the Philippines’ Abdila and Francisco 21-7, 21-10 and Oman’s Hood Al Jalboobi and Mazen Al Hashmi 21-19, 21-19.
The duo won gold at the 2018 Jakarta and 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and are now three victories away from a third successive title.
Qatar’s other pair, Moussa Al Khair and Ehab Mohamed, were eliminated in the round of 16 after losing 21-13, 21-16 to China’s Song Jinyang and Wang Yanwei.
Al Khair and Mohamed reached the knockout stage as Group D runners-up after beating South Korea’s Sangbin and Jeongtaek and Sri Lanka’s Sadun and Delipa before losing 2-0 to Thailand’s Purawit and Pithak.
With Al Khair and Mohamed eliminated, Younousse and Tijan are Qatar’s remaining representatives in the men’s beach volleyball competition and will continue their bid for a third consecutive Asian Games title against Iran in the quarter-finals.
