Qatar’s beach volleyball team crashed out of the second round of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after losing 2-0 to Russia twice coming down on the losing side in each game with a score line of 21-13.
The Qatari players, Cherif Younousse and Jefferson Pereira, had some great performances in Qatar’s first Olympic participation in beach volleyball.
The Maroon played in Pool F alongside Spain, Austria and the United States, losing against the latter before overcoming Spain and Austria 2-1 in both matches.
“We didn’t play very good today, but the Russian team is very strong,” Pereira was quoted as saying by FIVB.com.
“We had a good tournament, and we are happy about the tournament, but we are upset because we lost right now.
“I think we made something huge now. We can start developing the sport in Qatar and the kids can start to play the sport. This is important to us, to raise the (level of this) sport in Qatar.”
Younousse added: “I’m really going to miss this kind of competition. And the people. I don’t know if I’ll ever play in this kind of competition again. I will never forget this moment in my life. I am very proud. We could have made the quarter-finals. I’m very happy and I’m very proud of our team.”
With their 2-0 (21-13, 21-13) win in 32 minutes over Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar, Krasilnikov and Semenov become the first Russian men’s or women’s Beach Volleyball to advance to the quarter-finals in Olympic competition.
Yesterday’s win was also the third international victory for the Russians over Jefferson and Cherif in as many tries as the two teams also played each other on Copacabana last March with Krasilnikov  and Semenov posting a 2-0 (21-14, 21-17) pool play win in the Rio Grand Slam.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Abubaker Haydar Abdalla finished 28th overall in the qualification for men’s 800m with a timing of 1:47.81.
Abdalla finished fifth in his heat, which was won by Canada’s Brandon McBride (1:45.99).