DOHA (Qatar): Qatar will hope to book Olympic tickets for the first time in history when they take on India in their opening match of the 2020 Men’s Volleyball Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament in Jiangmen, China, on Tuesday.
The Olympic Games will be held from July 24 to August 9.
2019 Asian Championship runners-up Australia, who ranked eighth at home at Sydney 2000 and played at two more editions of the Games afterwards, lead the way in Pool B, with eight-time Olympic participants Korea as their main contender.
The hosts are joined by Qatar and South Korea.
Camilo Soto-coached Qatar will play Australia on January 8 and South Korea on January 9.
Group A comprises Iran, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei and hosts China with only the winner assured of a berth at the Tokyo Olympics.
Indian superstar Karthik Madhu said, ” We managed to finish second in our group and reach the top 8 in the Asian tournament. We’ve played some practice matches in Qatar, and having played both Australia and Qatar, we have a slight idea of the possible strategies they may employ. We will look to counter their challenge.”
Qatar were undergoing training in China in preparation for the tournament.
Men’s qualifiers in Africa also begin on Tuesday, before the start of the tournaments for South America and North America on Friday.
Teams will be looking to join Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Russia and United States at Tokyo 2020.
Qatar Squad: Mubarak Dahi Waleed, Sultan Abdullah, Ahmed Jamal, Mohamed Ibrahim Said, Bilal Nabil, Suleiman Saeed, Milos Stevanovic, Nader Abu Bakr, Renan Rebeiro, Assam Mahmoud, Naji Mahmoud, Khaled Samiah, Othman Abdul Wahid, Ahmed Bassam, Nikola.
