HANDBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s handball national team powered to their second successive victory in the men’s handball tournament yesterday at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The kingdom’s squad outclassed their counterparts from Iran 34-20 to maintain their winning start in their quest for an historic maiden gold medal in the quadrennial Asiad.
Their triumph against the Iranians followed their 43-20 rout of Kazakhstan on Sunday. The Bahrainis are now in solo first place on the Group B table in the nine-nation competition’s preliminary round.
The nationals built a commanding 15-6 lead in the opening half yesterday at Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium and never looked back, connecting on nearly three-quarters of their 47 shot attempts in the contest.
Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) vice-president and the kingdom’s delegation head Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa attended the game and later met with the Bahrainis to congratulate them on their win. Shaikh Isa was accompanied by BOC board member and Bahrain Handball Federation president Ali Issa Ishaqi, BOC executive director of operations and Bahrain’s chef de mission in Aichi-Nagoya Ahmed Abdulghaffar, and other officials.
Bahrain are looking to capture the elusive Asian Games men’s handball title for the first time. They are repeat silver-medallists, having lost to three-time defending champions Qatar in the final of the Asian Games’ 2018 edition in Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia, and then again in 2022 in Hangzhou, China. The nationals were also bronze-medallists in the 2014 tournament in Incheon, South Korea.
This time, however, they are looking to strike gold and add to their other momentous success earlier this year of winning their first-ever crown in the Asian Men’s Handball Championship, held in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
The Bahrainis have a rest day today and are scheduled to return to action tomorrow against South Korea. Their fixture is scheduled for an 11.30am start, Bahrain time. Following that assignment, they conclude their Group B schedule against Kuwait on Friday at 7.30am, also Bahrain.
The quarter-finals are then scheduled for Saturday and then the semis will be held on Monday next week. That will set the stage for the gold and bronze medal games next Tuesday, which will be the concluding day of the men’s handball tournament in Aichi-Nagoya.
Group A in the competition features Qatar, China, Hong Kong, and hosts Japan.
In other games yesterday, South Korea edged past Kuwait 26-23 in the other divisional clash, while in Group A, the Japanese cruised past Hong Kong 44-17 and Qatar beat China 30-25.
Bahrain’s rising star Salman Alshowaikh was once again a key contributor to their strong start yesterday in their game against Iran. He netted four of their first 10 goals as the nationals took control early on. He then fired in three more before the interval to help give the Bahrainis a 15-6 cushion heading into the locker rooms.
After the re-start, Bahrain continued to pile on the pressure. They extended their advantage to double digits for the first time on a goal by Ahmed Kadhem that made it 22-12. That was part of a resounding 7-0 run that made it 27-12, and they later enjoyed their biggest lead of 16 for the first time on an Abdulla Abdulkarim strike that made it 31-15.
They cruised to the finish from there, with veteran Ahmed Fadhul scoring their last two goals.
Alshowaikh finished as their leading scorer with seven. Fadhul and Mohammed Habib Nasser contributed five apiece, while Kadhem and Abdulkarim added three goals each.
Omid Enayati paced Iran in their loss with a game-high eight goals.
Bahrain are coached by Swede Robert Hedin, who helped guide them to their continental championship as well as to the gold medals at the fourth GCC Games in Doha, Qatar also this year, as well as at the sixth Islamic Solidarity Games in November of last year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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