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Qatari duo Sherif Younis and Ahmed Tejan won a bronze medal in the beach volleyball competition on Saturday on the penultimate day of the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Younes and Tijan beat Latvian duo Martins Plavins and Edgars Tux 21-12, 21-18 in 41 minutes.
The Qatari duo, ranked first in the world, dominated their group in the first round with a complete record with three wins, before eliminating the Americans Philip Dauhauser and Nicolas Lusina in the 16th round, and the Italians Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lobo from the quarterfinals. final. .
But his efforts to win gold were halted in the semi-finals on Thursday, when he lost to neutral-flag Russian duo Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and second-seeded Oleg Stoyanovsky in unanswered straight sets, 21-19 , 21-17.
The duo arrived in Tokyo after exceptional results this year. He won the gold medal at the first round-the-world meeting, held in its capital, Doha, and reached all three finals in Cancun, Mexico, winning the title once. He also won silver in Sochi, Russia, and Gstaad, Poland.
The emergence of the duo is not the result of the moment, but the top has been a grand prize of the season this year, having participated in seven world championships in the four-star category, reaching five finals and winning a title.
He has played in recent years, winning gold at the Asian Games (Asiad) hosted by Jakarta in 2018, and the Asian Beach Soccer Championship title the same year and retained it the following year.
This is the first Olympic Games for the crowns, while Younes competed in Rio 2016 with his former teammate Jefferson Pereira when they became the first Qatari team to participate in beach soccer in Olympic Games history, and they were eliminated in the round of 16.
With this bronze, the number of Qatari medals at the Tokyo Olympics rose to three, in addition to one silver and four bronze medals in the participation of the entire Gulf State in the Olympics since 1984.
Younes, 26, was born and raised in Senegal near the beach, so playing the sport came naturally. And he started the path that brought him to Qatar to represent the country professionally since 2014.
“We were patient, we believed in the path, and this is the result,” Younes told AFP.
After winning bronze, Younes told beIN Sports: “It was one of the best times of my life. Qatar will always be on the beach soccer map.”
He added: “All medals are important at the Olympics. The rest of the teams deserved to be in the final and we also deserved the podium, and in Paris 2024 we will also have a share.”
Also born in Africa in 1995, Tejan left his native Gambia in 2010. Like his partner, he fulfilled his childhood dream of playing in the Olympics.
The latter estimated at the end of Saturday’s match that “it is old history, it is not easy to achieve this feat”.
“This duo is as fused outside the stadium as it is inside, and that is why we are seeing the good results,” he told AFP.
“Off the pitch, we stay together all the time, we train together, eat together and even sleep in a room,” adds the shy young man.
He continues that before each game he discusses with Younes how to play and what the game will be like, so “it is reflected in the game (…) and the rest is up to God”.
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