Bahrain claimed a thrilling five-set victory over Puerto Rico last night as teams continued to battle hard for a place in the knockout rounds of the 2017 FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship.
The tournament hosts came back from a set down to beat their South American rivals 3-2 (23-25, 25-7, 25-10, 24-26, 15-10) in a see-saw match that could have gone either way.
The result earned Bahrain a berth in the knockout rounds where they will be one of four teams who will be coming out of Pool A in the preliminaries.
“We are very pleased to win this game,” Bahrain head coach Yousef Khalifa said. “We have worked hard for this and to see all our hard work bring these good results is great.
“We now have Tunisia in our last game; they will have to win to have any chance of qualifying so we expect them to play at their best.
“We want to win this game as well because we want to keep our momentum heading into the next round and we also need this to improve our rankings.”
Sayed Alabbar spearheaded a balanced attack for Bahrain with 20 big points including three aces. Alabbar also had five blocks. Mahmood Abdulhusain contributed 15 points and also had three aces.
Mohamed Jasim and and Hasan Mohamed each finished with 14 points, with Jasim registering three blocks and Mohamed four. Hasan Haider added 13 points to go with an impressive five blocks.
Bahrain’s final Pool A game against Tunisia is scheduled for a 7pm start, tonight.
Joining Bahrain in the next stage from Pool A will be powerhouses USA, who were made to sweat yesterday by an inspired Tunisia in the other divisional contest. The highly favoured Americans lost the opening two sets before turning things around with a two-point win in the third en route to finally closing out the match.
In Pool B, Japan defeated Poland 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 25-20). It was the third straight win for Japan, who remained undefeated and are among the top teams heading into the Round of 16.
Brazil joined Japan as big winners and both teams will now meet on Tuesday for the right to claim the number one spot in Pool B.
The Brazilians registered a hard-earned 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19) win over Cuba.
In Pool C, Argentina fought back from being two sets down to claim a fine 3-2 (17-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 18-16) against Korea; while Russia swept past Chile 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-15).
In Pool D, Iran defeated China 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-21) and Italy followed suit with their own 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-17) win over Mexico.
The preliminary round continues until today. Tomorrow will be a rest day, after which the Round of 16 will be held on Thursday.
For more information, visit u19.boys.2017.volleyball.fivb.com.