Bahrain bow to favourites Denmark

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain lost to the reigning world and Olympic champions Denmark 21-31 yesterday in their Group B game in men’s handball at the Tokyo Games.

The Danes lived up to their tag as the heavy favourites and were in control from the opening throw. They were ahead 12-7 at the half and enjoyed leads big as 13 goals in the final 30-minute period. The result was the third straight loss for the Bahrainis at the Olympics, following their narrow setbacks against Sweden and Portugal.

Despite this, they still have an outside chance of advancing to the quarter-finals but must win their last two games, first against hosts Japan tomorrow and then against Egypt on Sunday.

Both games are scheduled to get underway at 5 am Bahrain time. Denmark registered their third successive victory and sit atop Group B. Four players scored four goals apiece for Bahrain in the loss, including Ahmed Fadhul, Mohammed Mirza, Mahdi Saad and Ahmed Almaqabi. Hasan Ali and Ali Mirza added two goals apiece, while Ali Eid, Mohammed Abdulredha, Mohammed Habib, Mohamed Mohamed and Hussain Al Sayyad all finished with one each.

Johan Hansen top-scored for Denmark with six goals whereas Mikkel Hansen had five. In yesterday’s other Group B matches, Sweden edged past Portugal 29-28 and Egypt defeated Japan 33-29. Both Denmark and Sweden are still undefeated in Tokyo.

They currently top the Group B standings and have already secured their berths in the ensuing knockout quarter-final stage. They are followed by Egypt, Portugal, Bahrain and Japan on the table.

Group A features Spain, France, Norway, Germany, Brazil and Argentina. Only the top four teams from each group following a single round-robin move on to the last eight. Yesterday’s match was attended by Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) vice-president and the Kingdom’s delegation head at the Tokyo Olympics His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

HH Shaikh Isa was joined by BOC secretary-general and deputy head of the Bahrain mission in Tokyo Mohammed Al Nusuf and Bahrain’s Chef de Mission at the Olympics and former national table tennis star Hamad Buhijji.