Tribune News Network
Doha/Paris
Qatar’s beach volleyball pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will be aiming to qualify for the semi-finals on Wednesday, while 400m hurdler Abderrahman Samba will be gunning for a slot in the final at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Younousse and Tijan – the Tokyo Games bronze medalists – will take on USA’s Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh in the quarter-finals at 11pm Qatar time. The duo have been in prime form in Paris, having won all four of the matches so far.
If they get past Partain and Benesh they are scheduled to face Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig in the semis. Younousse and Tijan had beaten the World No. 1 pair in the group stages and look determined to win a second successive Olympic medal.
Meanwhile, Samba will be in action on Wednesday at 8:35pm in semi-final 2 and will be hoping to finish in top two to enter the final.
Samba had finished fifth in Tokyo three years ago but
has struggled with injuries since then.
Samba qualified for the semis after finishing third in his heat in a time of 48.35 seconds, behind Norwegian Karsten Warholm, the defending champion, and Frenchman Clement Ducos.
Another Qatari, who will be in action today is Abubaker Abdullah in 800m race heats. Abdullah, who has a personal best of 1:44.33 seconds needs to finish in top 3 to advance to the semis, or he will have to hope go into repechage round.
Bassem and Ismail bow out
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Bassem Hemeida and Ammar Ismail set a season and personal best timing respectively before bowing out of the Paris Olympics.
Hemeida needed to win his 400m hurdles repechage round, but was a distant sixth after clocking 49.64 seconds. After the race, Hemeida said injuries significantly impacted his preparation.
Ismail improved his personal best for the second time this week as he finished fifth in the 400m semi-final. Ismail – who had won his repechage round on Monday – set a time of 44.64 seconds.
