Hungrier for even bigger success, the Qatar Volleyball Association has mounted elaborate arrangements for the second edition of the Qatar Open Beach Volleyball Tournament.
At the QVA Beach Volley Academy courts, the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Tour event will have the main round starting on Tuesday. The qualifiers to find eight teams for the main round took place on Monday evening.
At a press conference in Doha, QVA President Khalid Ali al Mawlawi said his association has prepared very well for the event and he is looking forward to achieving a bigger success than the last year. Also present during the conference were Miguel Quintana, FIVB Technical Supervisor, Joel Van Iersel, FIVB Referee Delegate and Jeremy Inson, FIVB Media Delegate.
“We had conducted the first event last year. It wasn’t perfect for us but it was still rated by the FIVB officials as quite successful. We learnt a lot from that and we tried to take the level higher this time.
“This is the second of three events that we’ve signed up with the FIVB to host here. The FIVB officials who are here are quite excited with our preparations and they are assuring us that that this event would be more grand than the previous one.”
Mawlawi said,”For us, the presence of four top teams two from the USA and two from Italy – makes our event quite prominent and special. They will definitely raise the profile of our event and I’m sure they, along with other strong teams from different parts of the world, would be a big draw and attract large number of fans.”
He also added,”Entertainment is an integral part of the beach volleyball. So lots of fun activities take place around the event. This is what makes the beach volleyball different. We’ve also planned a lot of things and I feel the families, especially kids, will also enjoy.”
However, Mawlawi said the QVA has kept its options open and would choose which path it would follow before the third event next year.”Between the second and third editions, we’ll think about what course we have to take. As for now, we do feel we’ve the capacity to take our level up and go for the Grand Slam event.
“But we’ve to think seriously if we want to go for the Grand Slam or not. Right now, all options are open and we’ll choose the best one for us.”
FIVB Technical Supervisor Quintana said,”We’re very happy to see all the arrangements that the QVA has made for this event. I wasn’t here during the first event last year but I heard a lot about it. The QVA looks quite professional and it is capable of going for the bigger events.
“The FIVB is really quite impressed with the way the QVA is conducting the Qatar Open and helping the development of the sport. The QVA will have to take the initiative if it wants to have a Grand Slam event. I feel the FIVB understands the culture of Qatar and it’d try to help the QVA as much as possible.”