HANDBALL – BAHRAIN suffered an agonising 28-29 defeat to Brazil last night in their concluding President’s Cup fixture of the 25th IHF Men’s U21 Handball World Championship 2025, currently taking place in Poland.
The President’s Cup is played between the participating teams battling for 17th to 32nd places on the tournament’s final rankings.
With yesterday’s result, the Bahrainis wrapped up their competition campaign in 28th place overall.
It was their second straight narrow setback in their 25th-to-28th classification bracket. They had previously lost to the US 26-29 before bowing to the Brazilians by a single goal.
Earlier in the President’s Cup group phase, Bahrain also fell to Tunisia and Serbia.
The nationals faced a significant deficit early on in yesterday’s contest after trailing 2-7 in the first half. They then found their groove and got back to within two goals, 9-11, but Brazil fired in three unanswered and enjoyed a 14-9 advantage at the break.
After the re-start, the Brazilians remained in control and were up 27-22 with just five minutes remaining. The Bahrainis put up one last stand, but it came too late. Despite scoring the match’s last two goals through Mohamed Aadam and Ali Kadhem, they were not enough.
Kadhem finished as the national team’s leading scorer with eight conversions, while Mahmood Yusuf added five. Elias Ali and Ahmed Fardan chipped in with four goals apiece.
For Brazil, Vinicius Perin and Vinicius Bertoldo were their top talents, firing in 11 and 10 goals, respectively.
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.
The event marked the fourth time Bahrain played in junior handball’s premier global competition.
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