Qatar’s beach volleyball pair Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan made a winning start at the Paris Olympics Games on Saturday after a 21-19, 21-18 victory over Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Samuele Cottafava in the Group A preliminary match.
The 2020 Tokyo Games bronze medallists took early lead in both the sets and never relinquished it to wrap up the match in 45 minutes. They Asia’s top ranked pair next face Sweden’s World No 1 pair of David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig tomorrow. Their final group stage match is against Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher on Thursday, August 1. Twenty-four teams start in both the men’s and women’s events, before being whittled down to 16 for the knockout stages, with the finals taking place on August 9 and 10.
The beach volleyball is played at the most spectacular venue of the Paris Olympics in the shadow of a just-visible Eiffel Tower. And Younousse and Tijan’s also put on a sizzling display in front of an iconic venue. After a rain-soaked opening ceremony on Friday, the first full day of sporting action in Paris was equally wet and crowds at the purpose-built stadium huddled under umbrellas, hats and raincoats.
The waterlogged park was supposed to be the standout venue of the Games but the rain lashed down as men’s teams from the United States and Cuba took to the sand for the opening match. Beach volleyball has grown to become one of the most popular events at the Olympics since its inclusion for the first time in 1996, and stadium stands were largely packed.
On the court, Cuba’s Noslen Diaz Amaro and Jorge Luis Alayo Moliner easily won the first match of the day against US pair Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh. The United States are the current Olympic women’s champions but have not won men’s gold since Beijing in 2008.
Next on the sand were the top-ranked Swedish pairing of Ahman and Hellvig, both aged 22, who eased to victory against Australians Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher. The pair use an aggressive playing style known as the “Swedish jump-set”, which adds an element of unpredictability to attacking play and helped them win the day’s second match in straight sets. “A lot of people didn’t believe that it would work so well but I think we proved a lot of people wrong,” said Hellvig.
The women’s competition started with a close match between Asian champions China’s Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi and Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy of Australia. After a tight battle that ran to three sets, Australia managed to get over the line, winning 16-14 in the decider.
