HANDBALL – BAHRAIN’S Al Shabab ended their preliminary round campaign yesterday in the 27th Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship in Doha with a winless record.
The reigning Khalid bin Hamad Bahrain Handball League champions lost to Sharjah SC of the UAE 31-35 as they suffered their third successive setback in Group A.
The Bahrainis trailed by just a single goal, 16-17, at the end of the first half but then allowed their opponents to widen the gap in the final 30 minutes.
They fell behind by as many as seven goals with less than 10 minutes to play in the closing period but then made one final rally to get to within three, capped by four unanswered conversions – two apiece by Jassim Khamis and Anas Ben Slimen – to get back to within 29-32 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining.
They couldn’t reduce the gap any further from there, however, as they slumped to a 0-3 win-loss record in the tournament’s opening phase.
Despite this, Shabab are still through to the quarter-final round as the last-placed team from their pool, which also includes Kuwait SC of Kuwait and hosts Al Rayyan SC of Qatar. They will face off with the top-placed team from Group B, which features Ahli Sidab Club of Oman, Al Duhail SC of Qatar, Kazma SC of Kuwait, Sanat Mes Kerman of Iran, and defending champions Al Khaleej Club of Saudi Arabia.
The preliminaries are scheduled to conclude today.
Khamis was Shabab’s top scorer yesterday with seven goals, while Ben Slimen added six, Ahmed Redha finished with five, and Jihad Ben Araar scored four.
Zarko Markovic spearheaded the Emiratis with a game-high 12 goals, while Rayen Zariat scored six and Mosbah Sanai had five.
The round of eight will be played on Tuesday and then the semi-finals will be held on Thursday. The gold and bronze medal games, along with the other classification matches, are then set for Saturday later that weekend, which will also be the tournament’s concluding day.
The AHF competition also serves as a qualifying event for the 18th IHF Men’s Handball Club World Championship, to be held in New Administrative Capital, Egypt, in October of 2025. Only the winners will secure a qualification spot in the club worlds.
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