Doha, Qatar, May 18, 2021: The Qatar Olympic Committee has confirmed on its website that the country’s top beach volleyball pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
In a statement released on Sunday, May 16, the QOC said: “Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan qualified for the upcoming Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020, through the newly announced classification by the International Volleyball Federation.”
The FIVB has announced that 13 teams have guaranteed direct qualification for the Tokyo Olympics following the last three qualifying rounds played in the Cancun bubble in Mexico.
The explosive left-handed spiker Cherif and Ahmed made the finals of all three tournaments, winning one, to boost their position to fifth in the provisional FIVB Olympic rankings. It ensures them a place in the 24-team men’s beach volleyball competition at the July 23-August 8 Olympic Games.
The top 15 teams in FIVB Beach Volleyball Olympic Rankings as of June 13 will qualify for the Games. They will join five continental winners, to be decided next month; Italy and Latvia, who were finalists at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Haiyang, China in September 2019; hosts Japan and world champions Russia who will compete under the name of ROC (Russian Olympic Committee).
The pair won Asian Games gold at Palembang, Indonesia in 2018.
