Bahrain lose to India, finish 10th in Asia

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain suffered a tough 2-3 (16-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 14-16) loss to India yesterday in their thrilling final classification game of the 21st Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship in Japan.

The result put the Bahrainis in 10th place overall among the 16 participating teams, while India claimed ninth. It was the fourth time in 10 appearances that Bahrain was classified 10th in the continental tournament.

The previous times were in 1997, 1999 and 2005. Also yesterday, Iran has crowned the gold medallists after defeating hosts Japan 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 31-29) in the final.

China won the bronze medals after beating Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-17).

Ranked fifth through eighth, respectively, were Qatar, Australia, Pakistan and South Korea. Ranked below Bahrain from 11th to 16th were Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Kuwait.

In Bahrain’s loss yesterday, the Indians did well to take the two-set advantage and appeared to be cruising to the convincing victory. But the nationals would not go down easily and fought back valiantly behind the strong play of Mohammed Anan and Ali Alsairafi, who led their rally with six points apiece in the third set.

The Bahrainis took the next two sets to set up the decisive tie-break, but could not complete their comeback in the end with the tightly contested finish.

 It was a hotly contested affair throughout and the match lasted over two hours.

Four of Bahrain’s players finished in double-figure scoring.

Anan was the top man with 22 points, including 19 on the attack to go with two service aces.

Nasser Anan chipped in with 19, with 18 on spikes, while Mohammed Yaqoob finished with 12, nine of which came on attack.

Alsairafi finished the game with 10 markers. Mahmood Abdulwahed contributed seven points, Hussain Aljeshi five, and Abbas Al Khabbaz, Ali Ebrahim and Ali Habib each scored one point.

Rai Ashwal paced India in the win with 24 points.

The Bahrainis are coached by Brazilian Marco Antonio Queiroga. Their other players in the championship were Ali Khairalla, Hussain Sultan, skipper Mahmood Hasan, Mahmood Alafyah, and Mahmood Abdulhussain.