Najma barge into Gulf clubs handball final

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain champions Al Najma powered into the gold medal game of the 38th Gulf Clubs Men’s Handball Championship last night with a 28-21 victory over Al Ahly of Qatar in their semi-final contest played in Kuwait City.

Najma were the aggressors from the get-go and never wavered in their bid to punch their tickets to the tournament final. They were in command 9-4 midway through the first half and stayed in the lead at 14-8 at the break.

The Bahrainis then did well to maintain their advantage over the final 30 minutes of play, en route to securing the seven-goal winning margin. Najma are now set to face the winner of the other last-four clash between Al Kuwait SC of Kuwait and Mudhar of Saudi Arabia.

The title contest is scheduled to be held on Sunday at 7pm, to be preceded by the bronze medal game at 5pm. Tomorrow, the classification game for fifth place will take place between Al Salmiya of Kuwait and Al Jazeera of the UAE.

Speaking of last night’s win, Najma’s French professional Olivier Nyokas commented: “We had a really good game in defence—that was really important today.

“For us, the objective was to go to the final. We are at the objective now. We have one more game, it’s really important for us, and it will be a really tough game. “We will see who we will play against, but it will be a very tough game for sure. In a final, anything can happen. We will rest, focus and try to win the final.”

Nyokas played a key role for Najma in the contest, along with his brother Alix Kevynn Nyokas, as did Bahraini talents Hussain Al Sayyad, Mohammed Abdulhussain, Hassan Shehab, Bilal Basham, Mahdi Saad, Komail Mahfoodh, Mohammed Mirza and Ali Eid. Following yesterday’s contest, Ahly’s Salem Qambar was named the Best Player of the Game.