VOLLEYBALL – Brave Bahrain went down fighting against Egypt last night and had to settle for the silver medals in the second Arab Youth Volleyball Championship, which came to a close in the kingdom.
The hosts gave their all against the newly crowned champions in a hugely exciting 1-3 (22-25, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25) defeat, played in front of a large crowd of home fans at Isa bin Rashid Volleyball Arena at Isa Sports City in Riffa.
The contest wrapped up a full week’s action in the single round-robin tournament, which was organised and run by the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) in cooperation with the Arab Volleyball Association (AVA).
The Bahrainis finished as runners-up for the second successive edition, while the Egyptians won the title for the first time.
They followed in the footsteps of inaugural winners Saudi Arabia from the 2024 event held in Amman, Jordan.
In another game yesterday on the competition’s final day, Saudi wrapped up their campaign on a positive note after sweeping past Jordan 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-16).
Following last night’s concluding fixture between Bahrain and Egypt, the awarding and closing ceremonies took place.
Amongst those presenting the awards to the two teams were Bahrain Olympic Committee vice-president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and BVA and AVA secretary general Feras Al Helwachi, in the presence of other BVA and AVA officials.
Joining the Bahrainis and Egyptians on the podium were Kuwait, who were already handed their bronze medals following their concluding assignment on Saturday night at the same venue.
The Kuwaitis made it into the Arab youth top three for the first time.
Along with the gold and silver medals, eight individual awards were given out to the tournament’s top performers.
Three Bahraini players were honoured, including opposite spiker Mohammed Kadhem, middle blocker Ammar Ebrahim, and outside hitter Mohamed Haram.
Both Bahrain and Egypt headed into last night’s title-decider with unbeaten records after four outings apiece – during which neither team conceded a single set.
That would eventually change by the end of yesterday’s opening frame, and it was the Egyptians who maintained their pristine mark in the beginning.
After a spike from Ebrahim made it 21-all for the Bahrainis, Egypt pulled away with three of the next four points, and they secured the early match advantage with a block out.
The Bahrainis did well to respond, and they raced out to a quick lead early in the second set, where they extended their advantage to 14-8 midway through.
A stunning effort from Haram in chasing down a wide ball to keep a rally going helped the nationals stay in control, and they later levelled the proceedings following a Sayed Hasan Alabbar smash – giving Egypt their only set loss of the entire competition.
The nationals tried to carry over their momentum into the ensuing frame but the Egyptians regained their composure and coolly powered ahead.
They then went for the kill in set four, and although Bahrain kept things close until a 17-all tie, the Egyptians wrapped up the match with a strong finish as they deflated the home team’s spirits.
The rest of Bahrain’s team, coached by Yusuf Khalifa, that competed in the championship were skipper Nasralla Haram, Ali Abdulla, Ahmed Husain, Ebrahim Alhamar, Abdulla Aljaboori, Karrar Yaqoob, Hadi Hussain, Mustafa Ebrahim, Hussain Albalooshi, Hadi Ahmed, and Abbas Mohamed.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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