HANDBALL – BAHRAIN suffered a narrow 32-36 defeat to Serbia yesterday in their concluding Group IV game of the President’s Cup in the 25th IHF Men’s U21 Handball World Championship 2025, currently being played in Poland.
The President’s Cup is being played between the participating teams to determine 17th to 32nd places on the tournament’s final rankings.
The Bahrainis held an early lead in the contest at 8-6 following a Sayed Mahmood Alfalahi fastbreak. But the Serbians scored the next three goals to take back the advantage, and they never trailed again.
A Mladenko Drasko effort from the right broke a 13-13 deadlock, and it sparked a 6-2 rally for the Serbians to head into the break up 19-15.
In the second half, the Bahrainis tried to fight back despite falling behind by as many as six goals. They got back to within three on multiple occasions late on – the last time after an Elias Ali penalty that made it 31-34 with only a minute remaining – and the Serbians held on until the finish.
Bahrain’s Ali was the game’s top scorer with an impressive 10 goals in the losing effort, while Abdulla Mohamed added nine and Mahmood Yusuf scored four.
Vukasin Antonijevic scored eight to pace the Serbians, who also got six goals from Radan Kovacevic.
Despite the loss, Bahrain’s Mohamed was presented with the award for Player of the Match. He was given a trophy at the end of play by a tournament official.
Coached by Bahraini tactician Ali Alfalahi, the junior nationals lost their second straight fixture in Group IV of the President’s Cup having previously also bowed to Tunisia.
In yesterday’s other divisional fixture, the Tunisians defeated Saudi Arabia 35-31.
With those results, the Bahrainis finished third in their division table with one win and two losses – their lone victory coming against Saudi in the preliminary phase and carrying over to this stage. The nationals will next compete in the 25th-to-28th-place bracket, which also includes the US, North Macedonia, and either Brazil or Uruguay.
Serbia finished first and will play for 17th to 20th, followed by Tunisia who will compete for 21st to 24th. Saudi were last in their group and will compete in the 29th-to-32nd bracket.
Bahrain qualified for this year’s world IHF Men’s U21 World Championship after placing third in the 18th Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship last year in Amman, Jordan.
This year’s event marks the fourth time Bahrain are playing in junior handball’s premier global competition. The nationals first qualified for its 1995 edition in Argentina, and by playing in 2025, have appeared in the last three tournaments, including in 2019 in Spain and in 2023 in Germany/Greece.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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