HANDBALL – Bahrain’s Al Najma powered to their first victory of the 28th Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship last night in Sabah Al Salem, Kuwait.
The kingdom’s representatives led from start to finish in a resounding 32-27 win against Sharjah SC of the UAE at Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah Covered Halls Complex.
The result snapped their two-game losing streak to begin the Asian Handball Federation tournament and they revived their hopes of marching through to the semi-finals.
Despite scoring their first two points, Najma remained in the bottom half of the seven-team standings.
In other results last night, hosts Kuwait SC and Al Duhail of Qatar played to a 28-all draw, while Khaleej Club of Saudi Arabia edged past Burgan SC of Kuwait 26-25.
Khaleej’s triumph put them in solo first place on the table with seven points after four games. Burgan, Kuwait, and Duhail follow in the top four.
Najma’s game last night was their third assignment of the tournament’s preliminary round, and it followed two opening defeats against Kuwait and Duhail.
Najma, coached by Abdulrahman Mohamed, return to action today when they take on Al Arabi of Qatar at 4pm.
They then play their penultimate fixture of this stage against Burgan tomorrow, also at 4pm, before completing this stage against Khaleej on Sunday at 8pm. All times are Bahrain.
After this single round-robin, the top four teams on the standings move on to the last four, scheduled for Monday.
The gold and bronze medal games will then be held next Wednesday.
Najma took a 4-1 lead early on in yesterday’s contest but Sharjah fought back to draw level at 8-8.
The Bahrainis regained control with three unanswered goals – two from Hassan Alsamaheeji and another from Jassim Khamis – as they rebuilt their advantage.
Mahdi Saad then gave them a 14-10 lead and then was on target once again on a fastbreak right before the half-time buzzer to put his team up 15-12 heading into the locker rooms.
After the re-start, Najma’s Ahmed Fadhul scored thrice in the first 10 minutes to help Najma surge ahead 20-15.
They continued their strong play and a Sayed Ali Basem conversion made it 22-16 with the concluding quarter-hour left to play.
Najma then did well to extend the gap as they enjoyed leads of up to seven goals the rest of the way. Mohammed Abdulredha scored from long distance to make it 30-23, and later Mohammed Habib Ahmed made it 32-25 with a minute on the game clock.
The Emiratis pegged the final score with two goals right before the game-ending buzzer.
Khamis finished as Najma’s leading scorer with six goals, while Serbian professional Uros Mitrovic chipped in with five and Fadhul, Basem, and Ahmed all contributed four goals apiece.
Gamal Mahmud was the top performer for Sharjah in the loss with 10 goals, earning him the Man of the Match award.
This year’s Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship also acts as a qualifier for the 19th IHF Men’s Handball Club World Championship, with the champions securing direct qualification for the International Handball Federation (IHF) competition, to be held in Egypt in October later this year.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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