Qatari duo win FIVB World Tour title

It seems to be raining achievements for Qatari sportsmen these days.

In another first, Qatar’s Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse won their maiden FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour title after beating Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin in the final of the inaugural Kish Island Open on Friday.

The duo prevailed over the Russians 2-1 (21-13, 14-21, 15-12). Jefferson and Cherif fought back in the tie-break after Stoyanovskiy and Yarzutkin took the early initiative, but a well-timed time out allowed them to rediscover their rhythm.

“Sometimes you’ve to stop and have a time out and say ‘let’s start again’,” Pereira said. “We got back into the game and then they started to make mistakes. It came down to pressure and we put the pressure on them and made them make mistakes,” he said.

Pereira and Cherif, who teamed up at the end of 2013, have gone from strengths to strengths and became the first Qataris to win a World Tour medal.

Here is to wishing these champions the best of luck. And more power to our sportsmen.