Qatar’s 4×4 volleyball team will face Chile in the quarterfinal of the inaugural ANOC World Beach Games on Monday.

In other round of eight, Poland will play Germany, USA will take on Mozambique and Australia will lock horns with Indonesia.

Qatar, who remained unbeaten, finished their Group A engagements with six points and were followed by USA, Germany and Indonesia (four each) in that order.

Australia topped Group B with five points. Poland, also on five points, finished second while Chile and Mozambique (four each) were third and fourth.

Rally point ratio system determined the final standings in the two groups.

On Sunday, Qatar first defeated USA in a hard-fought contest 16-21, 21-10, 15-10. They then proved too good for Germany, winning 21-18, 21-15. Qatar had defeated Indonesia in their opening game on Saturday.

Cherif Younousse stood out for Qatar, attacking mercilessly and defending hard when the going got tough. His teammates looked up to him for inspiration, and the 24-year-old delivered. He was happy with the team’s overall performance.

“This format is entirely new to us, and I’m happy the team adapted fast. Two days ago, I would’ve laughed if someone said we’ll progress from the group unscathed. Yet here we’re. We’ll continue to focus on one game at a time,” he told Inside Qatar.

Another person keenly watching the team’s progress was Qatar Volleyball Association President Ali Ghanim Al Kuwari, who sounded cautiously optimistic.

“My players have been getting better with each game, and I’m happy for them. But now, it’s the knockout phase, and we can’t afford any slip-ups. I hope we can continue the strong show,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Qatar’s handball team had set up a quarterfinal clash with Australia, moving to the knockouts with an unbeaten record.
Meanwhile, the host nation’s 3×3 basketball team had mixed luck in Group C. They started on a wrong note, losing to Ivory Coast 13-18, before picking up steam to overcome Togo 15-10. They will meet Slovenia in their last group game on Tuesday.

Qatar player Aladji Bobo Magassa said they were determined to win against Togo after the setback against Ivory Coast.

“We wanted it so much after our loss in the opening game. Now, we’ve to focus on the next match against Slovenia and beat them to qualify for the knock-out stage,” he said.

Qatar did not have much to cheer about in the individual events.

Adham Hashim scored 22.74 points to finish 25th in men’s karate kata. Mona Saud Alkharfi, the country’s woman representative in the event, also fared poorly, finishing 29th with 20.74 points.

Mohamed Abdelrahman and Nada Wafa Arakji failed to finish the men’s and women’s races respectively in the 5km Open Water swimming event.