Trailblazing Saudi Arabian duo leaves a mark in Doha  

Saudi Arabia boys’ team needed a wild card to participate in the FIVB Beach Volleyball Under 18 World Championship but their performance in Doha so far, has been nothing short of inspiring.

To put into perspective, the pair of Ahmed Mafouz and Hadi Aljorfi, both only 16 years old, only started playing beach volleyball five months ago. During this induction period into the sport, the Saudi duo has featured in Zonal and Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Tours playing against seniors, way beyond their age.

The U18 World Championship is the first time they are playing against opponents of their age group and it’s been a roller coaster ride so far. Ahmed and Hadi defied all odds to finish second in Pool H with 5 points and qualify for the elimination round. They only lost to pre-tournament favorites Thomas Mathias Endler & Felippe Prudencio Arruda Barbiero of Brazil in the pool phase. Ahmed & Hadi registered convincing 2-0 wins over Egypt’s Mohamed Khaled Mohamed & Abdelhamid Abdelfattah and Qatar’s Jassim Mahmoud Al-Tamimi & Saad Nasser Alawad to advance to the Round of 24 where they lost 2-0 (08-21, 11-21) to Venezuela’s Gerardo Andres Bordones Hernandez & Sebastian Alfredo Pereira Blanco on Friday.

“We feel privileged to have gotten this opportunity to play at the World Championship and face off with teams like Brazil. We knew it was going to be tough to play against one of the best teams in the competition (Brazil) but we are happy that we won against Qatar and Egypt to qualify for the elimination round,” said a beaming Hadi.

Like any other player, Ahmed and Hadi have had their fair share of challenges adapting to the sand having started out as indoor volleyball players. However, they’ve had the rare privilege of working with elite Brazilian coach Vinicius Martins Giorni through this transition.

“The transition has been smooth because we are now comfortable playing in the sand after a very short time. We want to specialize in beach volleyball because we enjoy it a lot and have a supportive coach. He has taught us a lot in this short period and given us freedom to express ourselves on the court without any pressure,” Hadi spoke glowingly of Coach Giorni.

“This is just the beginning. We want to work hard and play in high level competitions in the future,” he added.

The 45-year-old Giorni is in charge of Saudi Arabia’s beach volleyball programme as part of a 12 months Coach Support project under the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment Programme worth USD 42,000. He was particularly impressed by his team’s performance in the 2-0 (10-21, 11-21) loss to Pool H leaders Thomas & Felippe of Brazil, one of only three boys’ teams to end the pool phase unbeaten and without losing a set.

“This competition is a huge experience for them. They have played beach volleyball for only five months against seniors and they managed to do well against Brazil. If you consider that these Brazilian players started playing beach volleyball at the age of 8 then you can only be only proud of them.

“I’m happy because we’ve started to create our own system. Our service reception and setting was good. We did a lot of mistakes in attack but it’s encouraging to see that we now have a system. We managed to control the ball against a team that serves so well so it’s an achievement,” noted Giorni.

Just five months into his new job, Giorni is convinced that Saudi Arabia is a sleeping beach volleyball giant if Ahmed and Hadi’s steady improvement is anything to go by.

“It’s a journey, we are just starting. I’m happy that Saudi Arabians have started liking beach volleyball. We need to continue working because success does not come overnight. We need to bring more players into beach volleyball and increase our pool in order to build proper beach volleyball structures,” he advised.

“I’m confident that with the support from the Federation, FIVB and the Ministry of Sport, we can implement our long term plan because there’s huge potential in Saudi Arabia.”