Isa Town, Bahrain, June 9, 2024 – Mighty Qatar stamped their domination over the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup after demolishing Pakistan in an electrifying final showdown which wrapped up an exciting week of topflight competition at the Isa Town Sport City Hall C here on Sunday.
The exceptional 25-22, 25-20, 25-19 victory in front of approximately 2,500 spectators inside the venue handed debutants Qatar their unprecedented title in this toplight tournament and the lone berth up for grabs in the 2024 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup in Linyi, China between July 4 and 7, which serves as the last qualification for the revamped Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2025, expanding to 18 teams.
Qatar had already picked up silver at the 2023 FIVB Challenger Cup on home soil in Doha and will now join the fray in the 2024 edition together with hosts China for the second year running.
World No.47 Pakistan, which captured the recent CAVA Nations League last month in Islamabad, stormed into the showdown undefeated as they brushed off Kazakhstan 3-0 and Thailand 3-0 in the pool round-robin preliminaries to top Pool B. The Pakistani team continued their unbeaten streak after beating Vietnam in nail-biting 3-2 quarterfinal clash and outplaying Korea 3-1 in the semi-finals.
Qatar had a disappointing outing with 2-3 loss in their campaign opener against Korea, but bounced back to win three successive matches against Indonesia in Pool C, China in the quarterfinals and Kazakhstan in the semifinals with scores of 3-0, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.
Qatar, which had already beaten Pakistan 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the rescheduled 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games last year, took the hard-fought first set 25-22, courtesy of their splendid offensive system orchestrated by outside hitter Youssef Oughlaf, middle blockers Mohamed Ibrahim Ibrahim and Belal Nabel Abunabot.
Inspired by the victory, Pakistan bounced back in the second set, but although they put up a gallant fight, their offensive mobility was limited by the Qatar’s solid block efforts led by Abunabot and Borislav Georgiev. Qatar clinched to second set 25-20.
Conceding two sets in a row, Pakistan, spearheaded by Murad Khan and Murad Jehan, hit back in the third set, hoping for a comeback. However, their determined effort was denied as the hefty Qataris stayed in control. Almal Khan fired a sharp spike to help Pakistan trail close 18-23, but a service error from Muhammad Hamad handed Qatar the match point 24-18. The…
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