Bahrain bow to UAE in West Asian volleyball

TDT | Manama                                                  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain went down fighting in a five-set thriller to the UAE last night in the first West Asian Junior Volleyball Championship, being held in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. The under-20 nationals won the first set but then gave up the match advantage to their Emirati rivals in the second and third.

They battled back in the fourth to force the tie-break, but their opponents were just too good in the end and the Bahrainis were eventually dealt a 2-3 (25-18, 21-25, 23-25, 25-12, 8-15) defeat. With the result, Bahrain suffered their first loss in Group A of the competition’s preliminary round.

They had earlier won their first two games against Iraq and Lebanon. Despite the setback, the nationals are already virtually assured of a place in the tournament’s quarter-finals. The Bahrainis have one more game in the preliminaries today against Jordan.

The match is scheduled for a 1.30pm start, Bahrain time, and it will take place at the Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Sports City arena. The 10-nation competition also features hosts Saudi, Qatar, Syria, Kuwait and Palestine in Group B.

After a single round-robin in this opening stage, the top four from both groups advance to the cross quarter-finals, with the Group A winners taking on the Group B fourth-placers, and so on. The teams finishing fifth in each group will fight it out for ninth overall.

The semi-finals and classification round for fifth to eighth-places will be held on Friday. All participating teams will have one-day rest the following day, while the final classification matches, as well as the bronze medal game and the gold medal showdown, will take place on Sunday.

In Bahrain’s loss last night, after falling behind 1-2 at the end of a hotly contested third set, the Bahrainis dominated the fourth and were able to ride their momentum into a decisive final frame. There, however, they had a worrying start, falling behind 1-8 but still stayed resilient. They managed to narrow the gap to 5-10, but the Emiratis scored the next two points to go back up by seven.

The nationals made one last push to try to stay in the game and were able to get to within 8-13, but the UAE came up with the winning points on their ensuing plays. It was the second win for the UAE in the group. They had also defeated Jordan, but lost to Iraq and Lebanon.

Bahrain had contributions from their entire team, which includes Hussain Ali, Redha Matrook, Ali Al Bosta, Hassan Al Warqa, Sayed Hashem Issa, Ali Hussain, Ali Habib, Sadeq Marhoon, Sayed Ahmed Murtadha, Hussain Abdulredha, Hassan Aliwi and Abbas Ihsan.

The junior Bahrainis are coached by Tunisian tactician Saber Abdulwahed. Bahrain are using the West Asian tournament to prepare for the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship, which will be held in the Kingdom next month. In yesterday’s other Group A game, Lebanon beat Jordan 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-12). The Lebanese play their Iraqi counterparts today in both teams’ final assignment in this stage.