The Qatari capital will welcome the Beach Pro Tour’s Challenge tournament from May 5-8.

Are you a sports fan? Mark your calendar for the third challenge tournament in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour right here in Doha.

The Gulf capital and the leading sports hub in the region will take the tournament to a third continent after Mexico held an event in Tlaxcala and Brazil in Itapema.

The challenge of the inaugural season will take place from May 5 to May 8 and will feature 48 men’s teams and 45 women’s duos from 28 different countries. The qualifier of the much-awaited event will kick off on Thursday, while the main draw will stretch until Friday.

Competitive winners will be announced on Sunday.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan, the top seeds at the Beach Pro Tour Doha Challenge event, aim to clinch the titles and make up for the missing podium at last year’s 4-star World Tour tournament in Qatar.

“Last year we were not able to reach for the podium at the Doha 4-star, but this time around it will be different,” 27-year-old defender Ahmed told Volleyball World.

“Now we have a Beach Pro Tour Challenge event in Doha, so we want to do our best and make the Qataris proud of us, as we have been doing when playing outside Qatar.”

This year, the tournament will be held at Beach Courts at Al Gharafa, which hosted a World Tour event in 2016 and the World Beach Games.

Evolution of beach volleyball in Qatar

The country first welcomed International beach volleyball in 2014, when the city hosted the penultimate men’s event on the FIVB World Tour calendar.

Less than a decade later, Doha hosted ten international tournaments, with two events held in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, highlighting the evolution of beach volleyball in the Gulf nation.

In March 2021, the latest tournament featured both men’s and women’s teams. The next event will mark the 11th tournament on Qatari grounds.

Not only that, but the nation also hosted several volleyball international events successfully throughout the last years, including the FIVB-sanctioned beach volleyball event at the ANOC World Beach Games and the Finals of the 2021 King of the Court series earlier this year.

For the last four years, the competition took place at the Katara Cultural Village. However, now it has moved to Gharaffa.

 All the matches of the Doha Challenge can be watched live or on-demand on Volleyball TV.