Qatar’s beach volleyball pair Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will be gunning for their second successive Olympic bronze at the Paris Games on Saturday. After going down in the semis on Thursday, the duo will take on defending champions Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway in the bronze medal match on Saturday at 10pm.
Younousse and Tijan had lost to Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig 13-21, 17-21 in the semi-finals for their first defeat in six matches played in Paris. In the final, Ahman and Hellvig will take on Germany’s Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler.
Meanwhile, top-seeded Brazilian pair Ana Patricia Silva and Eduarda Santos won gold in the women’s beach volleyball on Friday, finally nailing down victory after three tense sets in a bad-tempered game.
The duo beat seventh-ranked Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, who will take silver, by 15/10 in a decider match. The match was tetchy at times, with frequent challenges from both sides, repeated booing from the vociferous Brazilian fans, and at one point a row broke out between the four players over the net. Play was halted while the pair argued and gestured at each other, before the umpire waved a yellow card at both teams the four players returned to their halves with reluctant smiles while the crowd sang along.
