Doha, Qatar, November 13, 2019 - Teenagers David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig posted a pair of wins for Sweden here Wednesday evening at the Al Gharrafa Beach Complex over two Japanese teams to capture the Pool A title at the 1-star men's only Aspire Beach Volleyball Cup.
The reigning Youth Olympic champions after winning the title 13 months ago in Buenos Aires, Ahman and Hellvig will be seeking their first FIVB World Tour final four finish after placing fifth twice last season on home sand in Göteborg and in Oslo.
The 17-year-old Ahman and 18-year-old Hellvig are competing in their seventh FIVB World Tour event with a 9-10 match mark together. In Buenos Aires at the 2018 Youth Olympics, the Swedes rebounded from a first match setback to win seven-straight matches to capture the gold medal.
Joining the young Swedes as group winners third-seeded Nouh Al-Jalbubi/Mazin Alhashmi of Oman, 10th-seeded Petr Bakhnar/Yury Bogatov of Russia and 13th-seeded qualifiers Jedrzej Brozyniak/Piotr Janiak of Poland, who won two qualifying matches Tuesday.
With 12 teams remaining in the competition, Thursday’s schedule will feature two rounds of elimination matches as the pool winners from Oman, Poland, Russia and Sweden received a bye into the quarterfinals. The semifinals and medal matches will be played Friday where the winning team will collect the US$1,000 first-place prize.
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The US$5,000 Aspire Beach Volleyball Cup is the third men's event on the 2019-2020 FIVB World Tour calendar with No. 4 starting Wednesday in Mexico at the Chetumal Open on the Yucatan Peninsula.