HANDBALL – BAHRAIN enjoyed a rousing start to their medal bid yesterday in the first Asian Men’s U-17 Handball Championship, currently being held in Amman, Jordan.
The kingdom’s cadet men’s handball national team thoroughly outclassed their opponents from Hong Kong 54-24 in a one-sided affair played at Princess Sumaya Hall in the Jordanian capital.
The Bahrainis were in control for the entire contest. They led 21-11 at the half and never wavered, going up by as many as their final winning margin of 30 goals.
Bahrain’s Mahmood Ali Ahmed was named the Player of the Match. He was presented with an award for his performance after the game.
The result put the nationals in first place in Group A of the tournament’s preliminary round, ahead of Gulf rivals Kuwait, who also secured a big win against Hong Kong in both teams’ opening fixture on Monday, 48-21.
The Bahrainis and Kuwaitis meet today in their pool’s concluding contest, scheduled for a 1pm start, Bahrain time. It will determine the winners of their group, although both teams are already through to the championship’s main round.
The Asian Handball Federation (AHF) competition features 13 cadets national teams from across the continent. It also acts as the Asian qualifier for the IHF Men’s U-17 Handball World Championship, to be held in Morocco from October 24 to November 1. The top two teams from this event will book their tickets to the worlds.
Following this ongoing single round-robin, the top two teams from each of the four divisions in the preliminaries move on to the main stage, where they will be divided into another two groups of four. Another round-robin will be played to determine the semi-finalists, which will be held on September 23. The gold and bronze medal games are then set for September 25, the championship’s concluding day.
The sides that will not make it into the main round will compete in a lower-tier competition for the Martyr Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah Cup, which will determine ninth through 13th, respectively. Hong Kong will be playing in this bracket.
Group B features Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China; while Group C comprises Jordan, Chinese Taipei and India. Group D includes South Korea, Iran, the Maldives, and Syria.
In Bahrain’s victory last night, they took a quick 5-0 lead to set the tone for the remainder of the match. A goal from Ahmed with just over six minutes remaining in the first half put them up by double digits for the first time at 16-6.
After the re-start, the nationals continued to dominate and went up by 20, 39-19, on an Isa Mohamed conversion midway through the second half. They continued to pile on the pressure and closed the match strong, scoring the last five goals to wrap up their massive victory.
Ahmed and Sayed Ali Ebrahim finished as Bahrain’s joint-top scorers with eight goals apiece for the Bahrainis, who are coached by Mohammed Abdelrahman from Egypt.
Mohamed and Sayed Omran Almahafda contributed seven each for the nationals, while Ahmed Abdulla chipped in with five goals and both Mohamed Fathi Marzooq and Mahdi Jaafar Ali had four.
Chun Iok Hui paced Hong Kong with four goals.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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