Finishing an early start on the 2016 season in Mexico and Turkey, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) continues the qualifying process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games this week as the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour resumes with the men’s $75,000 FIVB Qatar Open.

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USA's Phil Dalhausser, two-time Olympian and 2008 gold medalist as well as Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals runner up, along with new teammate Nick Lucena are the top-seeded team as the 2016 FIVB World Tour resumes in Qatar. Photocredit: Andreas Langreiter

The last of three open events on the 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar, the FIVB Qatar Open started Monday and continues through Friday at the Qatar Beach Volleyball Academy in the Al Gharafa Sports Club in Doha.

QATAR’S FIVB HISTORY
In last year’s inaugural FIVB Qatar Open, Germany’s Tim Holler/Jonas Schroder won the gold medal, Canada’s Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter earned the silver medal and winning the bronze medal was France’s Youssef Krou/Edouard Rowlandson. Both the gold and bronze medal-winning teams are entered this year.

WELCOME TO DOHA
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, it has a population of over 1 million. Doha is Qatar's largest city, with over 60% of the nation's population residing in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and is also the economic center of the country. It is also one of the municipalities of Qatar. Doha also serves as the seat of government of Qatar. Doha is home to the Education City, an area devoted to research and education.

The city of Doha held the 2006 Asian Games, which was the largest Asian Games ever held. Doha also hosted the 2011 Pan Arab Games and most of the games of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. Doha will also host a large number of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The World Petroleum Council held the 20th World Petroleum Conference in Doha in December 2011.

TEAM QATAR
As the host nation for the FIVB Qatar Open, Qatar has two men’s teams pre-seeded into the main draw for this event. Qatar’s mens teams entered are
Jefferson Pereira/Cherif Younousse and Assam Mahmoud/Ahmed Tijan. Qatar’s Pereira/Younousse were one of the most impressive new teams in the 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in the Netherlands.

TOP SEEDS
For the FIVB Qatar Open, the top-seeded teams are USA’s top-seeded Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, Italy’s second-seeded Alex Ranghieri/Adrian Carambula, USA’s third-seeded John Hyden/Tri Bourne, Italy’s fourth-seeded twin brothers Matteo Ingrosso/Paolo Ingrosso and Germany’s fifth-seeded Lars Flüggen/Markus Böckermann. 

France’s Krou/Rowlandson, last year’s bronze medalists in Doha, are pre-seeded sixth this year and last year’s gold medalists, Germany’s Holler/Schroder as pre-seeded 13th this year.

Among the other top-teams on the FIVB World Tour entered in Doha are Poland’s No.7 Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak, Latvia’s No. 10 Martins Plavins/Haralds Regza and Turkey’s No. 11 Volkan Gogtepe/Murat Giginoglu.

FIVB QATAR OPEN PURSE
The gold medal team at the FIVB Qatar Open will split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500.