Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan retained their Asian Games beach volleyball title, to give Qatar their first gold medal in Hangzhou

Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan successfully defended their beach volleyball championship by defeating China's Ha Likejiang and Wu Jiaxin 22-20 and 21-16, yesterday in Hangzhou. This was Qatar's first gold medal ever. After placing third in the mixed skeet competition, Reem Al Sharshani and Rashid Saleh Al Athba increased Qatar's total to four medals, comprising one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. Despite a valiant effort by the host team in the final, Younousse and Tijan, who also captured gold in the 2018 Asian Games, continued to play at the top of their game.

The Qatari duo outlasted the host team in a hard-fought first set that lasted 24 minutes before they put up a great performance to win the second set in 21. As the World No. 3 pair gets ready for the World Championship in Mexico next month, Tijan hopes to help Qatar continue to win championships.

Al Sharshani and Al Athba won the bronze medal play-off final against Tammar Ali Alwatt and Maryam Alasam of Bahrain 44-37, securing the third medal for the shooting team in Hangzhou following a men's team skeet silver and an individual bronze from the famous Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah in skeet. Kuwait and Kazakhstan won the gold and silver medals in the competition, respectively.