ISLAMIC SOLIDARITY GAMES – Bahrain set up a thrilling showdown yesterday with hosts Saudi Arabia for the men’s handball gold medals in the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games, currently taking place in Riyadh.
The Bahrainis booked their tickets to the title-decider after battling past Qatar 31-30 in the first of two semi-finals last night.
Saudi then secured the other berth with a resounding 29-15 win against the UAE.
The gold medal game is set to be played tomorrow at Green Hall of Prince Faisal bin Fahd Olympic Complex in the Saudi capital.
It is part of the concluding day’s programme in this year’s Islamic Solidarity Games, and it is scheduled for a 4pm throw-off.
The Qataris and Emiratis will clash for the men’s handball bronze medals today at 2.45pm.
Bahrain, coached by Swede Robert Hedin, needed to fight back from a slim deficit at the break to come away with their victory yesterday.
They went behind by as many as three goals, 13-16, after an Amine Gueris strike for Qatar a minute after the re-start.
But the nationals roared back and a Mohammed Habib Ahmed conversion tied it at 17-apiece.
The two teams continued to trade jabs throughout the concluding half, until Ahmed gave the Bahrainis the lead for good at 28-27.
He scored from the six-metre line with just under five minutes remaining.
Both he and Mohammed Habib Naser then supplied the nationals’ clinching goals.
Naser extended their advantage to 29-27 from the left wing, and then Ahmed scored on either side of Ahmad Madadi goals for Qatar to keep Bahrain in front 30-29.
Naser then virtually sealed the win after firing in in the final minute for a 31-29 edge.
Gueris pegged the final score with a goal right before the final buzzer.
Salman Alshowaikh put in a fine effort for Bahrain with nine goals to lead all scorers.
Ahmed chipped in with six, while Naser, Hasan Mirza, and Ahmed Kadhem each scored three goals for the Bahrainis.
Gueris and Madadi paced Qatar with eight goals apiece in their loss.
Elsewhere yesterday for Bahrain’s delegation in Riyadh, the men’s 3x3 basketball team missed out on a bronze medal after losing to Qatar 15-17 in the game for third place.
The kingdom’s quartet of Sayed Mohammed Hameed, Mohammed Buallay, Milos Supica, and Bogdan Dragovic put up a valiant fight but came up short in the end.
They had dropped to the bronze medal contest after losing their semi-final against Iran 18-21.
In fencing, Bahrain’s Sumaya Albuainain made it through to the quarter-finals of the women’s foil individual competition, but could not advance further.
She lost to Sofiya Aktayeva from Kazakhstan 4-15 in her round-of-eight bout, after earlier beating Ghzal Fulaiti from Oman 11-10 in the last 16.
Previously, she won two of her five bouts in group one of the preliminary round.
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