Sainey
Jawo and Mbye Babou Jarra did not ease their way into their international beach
volleyball careers, as most would. They didn’t take a quick flight down to
Qatar or any other competitions.
All
the way from the little West African nation of Gambia, now in the gulf state of
Qatar, the two Gambians recently had reach to the pinnacle of their career
after winning the prestigious African Games gold medal in Rabat in 2019.
African
beach volleyball champions will make a historic appearance in the FIVB Beach
Volleyball World Tour of the 2019-2020 season with the 4-Star Katara Open that
will run from March 9-13 at Katara Cultural Village in Doha.
“We’re
looking at it as if you’re committing to a single elimination tournament on the
other side of the world. It elevates your confidence in your team because
you’ve got to be confident to do that,” Jawo said.
The
team of most interest, of course, is that of Jawo and Jarra, who are playing in
their first 4 star event, the biggest event so far in their career and the
second biggest world tour event globally. The duo already had played in the
FIVB one star in Qatar and Iran. So now they’re off to Doha, in a last-ditch
effort to make a global history.
Depending
on how they finish, they could use the winnings from Doha to earn valuable
points or any other potential FIVB prior to the onset of the Olympic
qualifiers. What matters to them, and several others in the field, is that
they’re out there, on the World Tour, testing the perimeters of their
potential.
Their
determined coach Mounir Ghellaimi, his charges are already world beaters and he
believes the biggest thing for them will be to qualify Gambia to the 2020
Olympic Games. A lot of Gambians have that confidence in them, This 4 star is
not the goal for Jawo and Jarra. But it’s a litmus test to see if a future
event may be possible.
