VOLLEYBALL – BRAVE Bahrain went down fighting last night in a hotly contested five-setter against Egypt as they settled for the silver medals in the 17th Arab Junior Volleyball Championship, which came to a close in Amman, Jordan.
Opposite spiker Jassim Madan, setter Ali Thamer, and outside hitter Ali Talaq led an inspirational comeback from the kingdom’s junior men’s volleyball national team, who rallied from two sets down to force the tie-break in yesterday’s hugely exciting title-decider, played at Sports Palace Hall in Al Hussein Youth City.
But the Bahrainis came up short in their comeback bid as the Egyptians recovered and did enough to capture the crown with a 3-2 (25-20, 25-21, 22-25, 20-25, 15-9) final score line.
Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) vice-president Mohammed Al Thawadi and BVA secretary general Feras Al Helwachi, who is also the Arab Volleyball Association (AVA) secretary general, were in attendance for the contest.
The gold medal clash was followed by the official awarding and closing ceremony, where Egypt and Bahrain were joined on the podium by Libya, who secured the bronze medals. The Libyans defeated Lebanon 3-1 (16-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-19) in yesterday’s game for third place.
Completing the teams’ final rankings in fifth through eighth place, respectively, were hosts Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, and Iraq.
The tournament was organised and run by the AVA, which is chaired by BVA president Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, in cooperation with the Jordan Volleyball Federation.
The Bahrainis had an impressive run in the tournament, winning all of their matches leading up to yesterday’s championship game. They had defeated their Lebanese counterparts in the semi-finals after outclassing the Jordanians in the round of eight. Earlier, in the preliminaries, Bahrain took care of Kuwait, Iraq, and Palestine to sweep their group.
In last night’s affair, junior national team head coach Santiago Faidutti from Argentina had an opening line-up of Madan, Talaq, outside hitter Mohamed Alsendi, middle blocker Ali Jawad, setter Mohammed Abdali, and libero Ali Sultan. They had a tough start as Egypt came out firing on all cylinders and took a commanding two-set advantage.
With their backs against the wall, the Bahrainis roared back and Madan rose to the occasion, supported well by Thamer and Talaq, with timely contributions also coming from their teammates. After Egypt’s Khaled Elfeki gave them a 22-21 lead, the nationals scored the next four points to extend the battle.
They then rode their momentum into the fourth frame, where three straight Madan points gave Bahrain an 8-2 cushion. Egypt persisted and got to within 14-15, but the nationals replied with Madan keeping them afloat. Middle blocker Hasan Ebrahim got in on the action, scoring to make it 22-19 after being brilliantly set up by Thamer. A Talaq block then gave them set point, and Madan did the honours with a spike to close the set out and forge the 2-2 deadlock.
That set the stage, however, for Egypt’s resurgence in the final set, where they powered ahead 8-2 and never looked back. Bahrain tried to stay in contention but got no closer than four points the rest of the way.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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