Doha, Qatar: Qatar made history on the penultimate day of the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 as Rashed Nawaf and Mashari Nawaf won the first-ever Asian Games gold medal in padel, which made its debut on the official Games programme.
The historic triumph yesterday was followed by another golden moment as Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan retained their beach volleyball title for a third successive edition, taking Qatar’s medal tally to 16, including five gold, six silver and five bronze medals.
Top seeds Rashed and Mashari completed a dominant campaign without dropping a set, beating Malaysia’s Christian Chin and Aidan Yunus 6-3, 6-1 in the final at the Nagoya City Higashi Sports Center.
President of the Olympic Council of Asia H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani presented the Qatari pair with their gold medals.
Rashed and Mashari opened their campaign with a straight-sets victory over Kuwait’s Abdulaziz Mayouf and Fouad Behbehani in the Round of 16, before defeating the UAE pair of Abdullah Al Abdullah and Fares Al Janahi in the quarter-finals. They then overcame Iran’s Hami Golestan and Aria Roghani in straight sets in the semi-finals.
“It is difficult to describe how happy I am with this achievement, which rewards all the effort we put in throughout the tournament to reach the podium,” Rashed said.
“I thank everyone who supported us on our way to winning the gold medal. We dedicate this achievement to our leadership and the people of Qatar, and we hope to continue achieving success and raising Qatar’s flag at future events.”
For Mashari, the achievement carried added significance as padel made its Asian Games debut.
“I cannot describe how happy I am with this historic achievement. If someone had told me just two years ago that I would win an Asian Games gold medal, I would not have believed them,” he said.
“But now I am standing on top of the podium celebrating this historic achievement alongside my brother Rashed after we produced a great performance throughout the tournament.”
Cherif and Tijan complete golden hat-trick
Cherif and Tijan produced a memorable comeback to beat Indonesia’s Sofyan Rachman Efendi and Bintang Akbar 2-1 in the beach volleyball final to seal a hat-trick of titles, following their victories at Jakarta-Palembang 2018 and Hangzhou 2022.
The Indonesian pair took the opening set 21-19 after a closely fought contest, but the top Qatar duo responded by winning the second 21-16 before dominating the deciding set 15-8 to seal the gold.
“Thank Allah for this achievement and for winning the gold medal. The final against Indonesia was difficult and highly competitive,” Cherif said.
“We had promised to give everything we had to retain the title and make the Qatari fans happy, and thankfully we fulfilled that promise by winning the gold medal for the third consecutive edition.”
Tijan said: “I am extremely happy to win the gold medal after a very tough tournament.”
“I thank my teammate Cherif for the tremendous effort he made throughout the tournament, as well as the coaching staff and everyone who stood by us and supported us,” he added.
Meanwhile, Qatar riders Sheikh Fahad Jassim Al Thani, Faleh Al Ajami and Mohammed Basem will feature in today’s individual jumping event.
