Bahrain bow out of Asian youth handball title contention
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Two-time defending champions Bahrain were eliminated from further title contention last night in the ninth Asian Men’s Youth (U19) Handball Championship.
The Bahrainis suffered a heartbreaking 29-30 loss to Iran in their final Group A game in the competition’s preliminary round.
Mohamed Abdulla had a golden opportunity to give the nationals the lead with just seconds to play on a penalty attempt, but his shot was saved by Iran goalkeeper Amirabbas Zareei.
To add to the dramatic finish, Iran’s Amirhossein Karami was given a penalty with no time remaining, and he converted his seven-metre shot to peg the final score.
The Bahrainis fought back from a 10-12 deficit at the interval, but came up narrowly short in their comeback bid. Iran’s Ahmadreza Aram was named the game’s top performer. The result earned Iran the last ticket to the semi-finals as second in Group A, while Bahrain will have to play in the fifth-to-eighth classification bracket.
Also yesterday, Saudi Arabia beat Japan 31-28 to wrap up their preliminaries campaign as winners of Group B. The Saudis led 17-14 at the half and did enough to hold on to the advantage until the final buzzer.
Saudi’s Danyal Alshuwikhat was named the best player of the game. Both Saudi and Japan were already through to the semi-finals.
There, the Saudis will face Iran, while Group A winners South Korea, who were not in action yesterday, will take on Japan. Both contests are scheduled for tomorrow.
In another Group A contest yesterday, Uzbekistan defeated India 41-25. The Uzbeks raised their level in the second half after taking a slim 16-13 advantage into the locker rooms.
Rakhat Joldasbaev was selected as the top performer from the contest. In Group B, Kuwait defeated Qatar 35-18. Yaqooub Yaqoub led the victors, who enjoyed a 19-12 advantage at the break. The Kuwaitis claimed their third win in five matches.
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