BAHRAIN lost to China 1-3 (19-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-25) last night as the first round of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 wrapped up at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa.
The result put Bahrain in second place in Pool A behind the top-ranked Chinese, as both teams advanced to the tournament’s second stage.
Joining them marching forward were Argentina and Korea from Pool B, Russia and Iran from Pool C, and Italy and Brazil from Pool D.
In the ensuing second round, these eight teams are divided into two other Pools of four nations each (Pool E and Pool F). China are in Pool E with Korea, Russia and Brazil; while Bahrain are in Pool F with Argentina, Iran and Italy.
The remaining teams are in the classification groups G and H. Group G includes Puerto Rico, Egypt, the Czech Republic and Canada. Group H is composed of Morocco, Cuba, Tunisia and Poland.
Today is a rest day. Second round action begins tomorrow.
In Bahrain’s loss against China, the home side had a slow start and gave up the first set to their rivals. A strong second set levelled the proceedings, but the Chinese were just too good on the day and they took care of business in the third and fourth sets.
Hasan Mohamed led Bahrain with 19 points while Chengcheng Xiu was the top scorer for the triumphant Chinese with 23.
Bahrain head coach Yousuf Khalifa said after the loss: “This result does not change anything for us. It will be the same for us moving forward. More important for our group now is recovery time. We will use today and tomorrow. Tomorrow we will only do some light training. Things are just going to be more difficult from now on. But with a high level, we will try to do something.”
Argentina down Korea; Final Preliminary Round standings – Page 20