Oman book berth to New Zealand

Top seeds Oman qualified for the AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup qualifiers being held at the Ajman Corniche on the penultimate day yesterday.

The tournament is organised by the UAE Volleyball Association with the cooperation of the Asian Volleyball Confederation.

Oman remained unbeaten at the end of the third day’s play in this six-nation competition, while Bahrain and Qatar stayed contention to clinch the next two spots for the Continental Beach Volleyball Cup to be held in New Zealand from February 16-19.

The competition in New Zealand will serve as a qualifier for the London Olympics.

Oman scored an easy win against the UAE in the round-robin clash, Bahrain who lost to Oman on Sunday – prevailed over Kuwait and Qatar after having thrahsed the hosts 4-0 on the opening day.

UAE gave Qatar a tough time and did well to tie the match at 2-2. However, the pairing of Tariq Abdullah and Asif won the decisivie goldent set 15-10 to clinch it for Qatar.

The West Asian zonal competition being held in Ajman has attracted 12 teams from six countries from West Asia with nations playing each other in a best-of-five series before determining the top three teams that will represent the zone at the 2010-12 Continental Beach Volleyball Cup scheduled in New Zealand.

On Sunday, the UAE had done well to secure a commanding 4-0 win against Iraq.

The UAE had their share of chances against Qatar, but lacked experience