Cherif Younousse and Jefferson Pereira will represent Qatar at the World Championships which began in the Netherlands on Friday.
Qatar, making their debut at the Worlds, qualified by virtue of their third-place finish at the Asian Championship held in Thailand last year.
The FIVB-sanctioned tournament will be held in the Dutch cities of Hague, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Rotterdam and will end on July 5.
Cherif and Pereira have already contested in two FIVB World Opens — Lucerne (Switzerland), Fuzhou (China) — and as many Asian tournaments in Thailand (Songkhla and Nakhonsi) this season.
The biennial competition will have 48 teams split into 12 groups. The top two from each group will advance to the round of 32 along with the eight best third-ranked teams.
Qatar are drawn into Pool B along with Brazil, Austria and Australia.
Tiago Santos was Pereira’s partner earlier before suffering a career-threatening knee injury. Cherif came as his replacement and, since then, the duo has gelled well, with the GCC Beach Games triumph in April in Doha being its best result.
“For the first time, we’ve a team from Gulf competing in the World Championship and that in itself is a huge honour for us. The teams who’re playing in the Netherlands are undoubtedly some of the best in the world. Our players have the skills to macth them, so it’ll be a good experience for them,” said Qatar Volleyball Association General Secretary Mohammed Ali Al Mohannadi.