Lausanne, Switzerland, February 9, 2017 – Qatar’s Cherif Younousse will aim to defend a title won with Jefferson Santos Pereira in 2016 when he and Júlio César Do Nascimento Júnior partner at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour on Iran’s Kish Island from February 15-18.
Last year, Jefferson and Cherif broke through as the first in their nation to win a World Tour medal – a goal that they had pursued since teaming up in 2013.
The new Qatari pair will take on resilient squads from Poland, Russia, Germany, Canada, Austria and the United States.
Cherif and Jefferson claimed their first ever FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold medal in 2016 in the inaugural Kish Island Open, when they beat Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Artem Yarzutkin of Russia 2-1 (21-13, 14-21, 15-12) in the final.
After their run at Kish Island, the pair competed at the FIVB Rio Grand Slam, four FIVB Open tournaments in Vitoria, Doha, Sochi and Antalya, the Asian Championship and the AVC Continental Cup in Australia.
Their top podium finish in the AVC Continental Cup gifted them a ticket to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where they finished ninth.