The Qatari under-17 volleyball team will conclude its campaign tomorrow, Sunday, in the first round of the World Junior Championship “Doha 2026”, when it faces its Tunisian counterpart in the third and final round of the first group competitions, at five o’clock in the evening in the women’s gym in Aspire Zone.
The French team leads the group standings with 6 points, followed by Tunisia and Venezuela with 3 points each, while the Qatari team occupies fourth place without points, which gives tomorrow’s match great importance in the calculations of qualifying for the next round.
Saud Al-Kuwari, manager of the Qatari team, confirmed that the tournament is witnessing high technical levels, with the participation of teams that have great experience and have previously reached the podium, praising at the same time the organizational level of the tournament.
He explained that the participation of the Qatari team for the first time in the World Championship represents an important opportunity for the players to gain experience and exposure to different schools in the game, stressing that the team will work to benefit from this experience and develop its level.
Regarding the confrontation with Tunisia, Al-Kuwari pointed out that the level of the two teams was close, stressing that the Qatari team will enter the match with the ambition of achieving a positive result and competing until the end, and expressing his hope that the players will succeed in giving their best.
He also pointed to the strong levels that appeared in the tournament, especially among a number of Asian teams, such as Iran, Pakistan and India, stressing that contact with these schools contributes to developing the players’ abilities and giving them important experience at the beginning of their international career.
In the rest of today’s matches of the second round, the Brazilian team extracted a valuable victory from Poland by three games to two (25-12, 23-25, 25-17, 23-25, 16-14), raising its score to 5 points, compared to 4 points for Poland.
Within the second group, the Romanian team achieved its first victory by defeating its Cuban counterpart in three games without a response (25-14, 26-24, 25-15), raising its score to 3 points, equally with India, while the Italian team, the defending champion, leads the group with 6 points.
The Egyptian team achieved its first victory in the tournament, defeating its Turkish counterpart three games to two, (17-25, 25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 15-12), in the match that brought them together in the Al-Arabi Club hall in the fourth group competitions.
The Egyptian team raised its score to two points, compensating for its loss in the opening round to Bulgaria by three games without a response, while the Turkish team won over Spain with the same result, so that the Bulgarian team topped the group standings with a full score with 6 points, followed by the Turkish team with 4 points, then the Egyptian team with two points, while Spain came in fourth and last place without a score.
Within the fifth group, the Chinese Taipei team defeated its Algerian counterpart by three games to two (20-25, 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, 15-12), raising its score to two points, while the Iranian team leads the group standings with 6 points, followed by the Pakistani team with 3 points, then China Taipei with two points, and Algeria with one point.
The third and final round of the first round begins tomorrow, Sunday, and will witness a number of confrontations, most notably Qatar and Tunisia, Brazil and Argentina, Iran and China Taipei, Italy and Cuba, and Egypt and Spain.
The top three ranked teams in each group qualify for the round of 16, along with the best fourth-placed team, after which the knockout competitions begin, leading to the quarter-finals and semi-finals, then the third-place and final matches scheduled for August 29.