HANDBALL – Bahrain’s Al Najma put in a valiant effort last night in a 26-30 loss to Kuwait Sports Club in their opening match of the 28th Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship, currently being played in Sabah Al Salem, Kuwait.
The kingdom’s representatives fell behind early and faced double-digit deficits in the second half.
But they didn’t go down without a fight, roaring back to cut the Kuwaitis’ lead to just two late in the game, although the home team still managed to hold on for the win at Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah Covered Halls Complex.
Najma’s brilliant surge in the concluding 30-minute period came as they found their groove after struggling early.
The Bahrainis will now be looking to bounce back from the setback when they return to the court today against Al Duhail of Qatar at 4pm, Bahrain time.
Najma are one of seven teams in the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) event, which also serves as a qualifier for the 19th IHF Men’s Handball Club World Championship.
Only the winners will secure direct qualification for the International Handball Federation (IHF) competition, scheduled to be held in Egypt in October later this year.
In their loss last night, Najma trailed 1-7 at the start of the night but they gradually clawed their way back.
A goal from Mahdi Saad on a fastbreak made it 6-12, but the Kuwaitis maintained their strong play and took a 16-8 lead into the interval.
After the re-start, a goal by Kuwait’s Abdulaziz Alshammari put them ahead 18-8 for their first double-digit advantage of the night.
But after Saif Aldawani scored to give the hosts a 20-10 cushion, Najma came alive.
Ahmed Fadhul converted from the right wing as the Bahrainis strung together three unanswered goals, and later a Mujtaba Alzaimour effort in transition cut the gap even further to 16-22.
Najma then went on a furious 6-2 run, sparked by an Alzaimour goal from six metres and capped by a conversion from Montenegro professional Radojica Cepic, as they got to within 22-24.
But that was as close as they would get and back-to-back conversions from Kuwait’s Filip Kuzmanovski and Victor Iturriza later put them back in front by five, 28-23.
That sent the Kuwaitis on their way to the finish, and they closed out their four-goal victory.
Alzaimour finished as Najma’s leading scorer with six goals, while Fadhul and Hasan Madan chipped in with four apiece in the loss.
Hassan Alsamaheeji contributed three, while Saad, Portuguese import Daniel Da Neves, and Serbian professional Uros Mitrovic were each on target twice.
For Kuwait, Iturriza was their top man with seven goals, while Kuzmanovski added six and both Aldawani and Vladan Lipovina scored five times apiece.
Following today’s fixtures, a rest day will then be held tomorrow, after which the Bahrainis continue their campaign against Sharjah SC from the UAE on Wednesday at 8pm.
They then face Al Arabi of Qatar on Thursday at 4pm and then play their penultimate fixture against Burgan SC of Kuwait on Friday at 4pm.
Najma complete the preliminaries against Khaleej Club from Saudi Arabia on Sunday next week at 8pm.
All times are Bahrain.
After the single round-robin, the top four teams on the standings move on to the semi-finals, scheduled for June 15.
The gold and bronze medal games will then be held on June 17.
In another game yesterday, Khaleej Club of Saudi Arabia and Al Arabi of Qatar played to a 28-all stalemate.
Khaleej feature two of Bahrain’s top senior men’s national team stars on their roster, namely skipper Hussain Al Sayyad and young standout Mohammed Habib Naser.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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