The Iranian men’s beach volleyball team of Abolhassan Khakizadeh and Amirali Qalenoei advanced to the final of the Asian Beach Games after a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Oman’s Mazin Al Hashimi and Hood Rashid Al Jalaboubi on Tuesday in Sanya, China. The match unfolded under challenging rainy conditions at the Tianya Haijiao venue.
Khakizadeh and Qalenoei took the opening set 21-17 before Oman rallied to win the second 21-15. The decisive third set was closely contested, with the Iranian pair ultimately prevailing 15-13. This marked Iran’s fifth win in six matches at the tournament. Qalenoei described the semifinal as a difficult encounter, acknowledging Oman's strong performance and noting the significance of avenging the earlier quarterfinal defeat suffered by another Iranian duo.
“The conditions in today’s semifinal were truly difficult. We faced a very strong Oman team in rainy weather,” Qalenoei said. “It was a high-pressure match. Oman, having nothing to lose, played with great strength to win the second set. In the third, although we stayed neck and neck until 12 points, thanks to our teamwork, we managed to emerge victorious.”
The Iranian duo will face the Qatari pair of Cherif Samba and Ahmed Janko in the final, a rematch of their Pool B meeting, which saw Qatar prevail. Samba and Janko, bronze medalists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, maintained their unbeaten run in Sanya by defeating Thailand’s Wachirawit Muadpha and Netitorn Muneekul in straight sets in the other semifinal match.
In addition to beach volleyball, Iran will compete for gold in the men’s beach soccer final on Wednesday after a commanding 9-1 semifinal win over Palestine on Monday. Mohammadali Mokhtari led the scoring with a hat-trick, while Mohammad Masoumizadeh and Mahdi Shirmohammadi each contributed two goals. Movahed Mohammadpour and Davoud Shokri also found the net for the team coached by Ali Naderi. Iran extended its winning streak to four matches at the Sanya Bay Yuhai Club venue.
Their opponent in the men’s beach soccer final will be Oman, who secured a narrow 5-4 extra-time victory over Saudi Arabia in the other semifinal.
The Iranian delegation, comprising 57 athletes competing across 10 sports, has claimed two gold medals so far in the sixth edition of the Asian Beach Games, which conclude Thursday. Shot putter Hassan Ajami opened the gold medal tally on Sunday, followed by the men's kabaddi team’s upset victory over India 44-31 on Monday.