HANDBALL – BAHRAIN made a winning start yesterday to the 19th Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship, which got underway in Chuzhou, China.
The kingdom’s junior men’s national team outclassed their counterparts from Chinese Taipei 39-27 in their Group A contest of the under-21 tournament’s preliminary round.
The Bahrainis were in control from the opening throw and led by as many as 13 goals late on.
Abbas Ali was in scintillating form for the nationals, scoring a game-high 11 goals. Abuthar Yateem chipped in with six, while Mahmood Yusuf and Sayed Ahmed Alfalahi scored five goals apiece.
Bahrain and Chinese Taipei are part of a 13-nation field in the competition, which is being organised and run by the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) in cooperation with the Chinese Handball Association. The championship also acts as the continental qualifier for the 26th IHF Men’s U21 Handball World Championship, to be held from June 23 to July 4 next year in North Macedonia.
Bahrain continue their Group A schedule today against Gulf opponents Saudi Arabia. The game is set for a 7am start, Bahrain time.
Following today’s fixture, they next face Hong Kong on Sunday before playing their penultimate fixture of the preliminaries against Oman on Monday. They complete this round with a clash against China on Wednesday.
Group B is composed of defending champions Japan, South Korea, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, India, and the UAE.
At the end of the single round-robin, the top four teams from each group move on to the quarter-finals, which are scheduled for July 24. The semi-finals will then be held on July 25, setting the match-ups for the gold and bronze medal games on the championship’s concluding day on July 27.
Classification contests are also slated on each of the days of the knockouts.
In other matches yesterday, Saudi beat Oman 40-27 and China outplayed Hong Kong 28-12, both in Group A; while in Group B, South Korea edged Qatar 28-27, Iran eked past Kuwait 29-27, and the UAE stunned Japan 32-29.
In Bahrain’s game yesterday against Chinese Taipei, a goal by Ali from six metres gave them a 4-1 lead early on. Yateem was then on target on the fast-break to make it 10-3, and the nationals built a 17-11 advantage at the interval.
After the break, they continued to stay in control. And after Chinese Taipei got to within 24-29 with just over 10 minutes remaining, the Bahrainis pulled away, finishing the contest by outscoring their opponents 10-3. A goal from the right wing by Salman Al Showaikh with only seconds remaining gave them their biggest lead of 39-26, before Po Jui Liu converted from the penalty stripe to peg the final score.
Al Showaikh added four goals for Bahrain, while Ahmed Abdulla had two, and six others contributed one apiece, including Sayed Majeed Almuhafda, Ahmed Eid, Mahdi Ali, Mohammed Aadam, Ali Jadeed, and Hasan Alkhatam.
Bahrain’s junior men are looking to win the tournament title for only the second time, adding to their crown in the 1998 edition. They also won silver twice and bronze another two times in the past.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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