Bahrain bow to Denmark in handball worlds

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain were overmatched against defending world champions Denmark last night in a 21-36 defeat in their second Group H game of the 28th International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Handball World Championship, currently being co-hosted by Poland and Sweden.

The contest was played at Malmo Arena in the Swedish city of Malmo.

The result kept the nationals winless after two matches in the tournament’s preliminary round.

They had previously drawn with African giants Tunisia in their opening fixture. The Bahrainis now need to win their final contest against Belgium tomorrow to have an improved chance at advancing to the competition’s main round.

That clash is scheduled for an 8pm throw-off, Bahrain time. Should the nationals lose, they must await the final score of the other divisional contest between Denmark and Tunisia to learn of their fate.

The Belgians were 31-29 winners against their Tunisian counterparts in yesterday’s other Group H clash.

Only the top three teams in each of the groups in the preliminaries march on to the next phase.

In Bahrain’s loss last night, the Danes raced out to a big lead early on but Bahrain gradually closed the gap and faced a 9-16 deficit at the interval.

The victors then closed the game out in the final 30 minutes, enjoying their biggest lead of 16 goals with less than a minute to go.

Ali Mirza finished as Bahrain’s top scorer with five goals, while Mohammed Habib Mohammed contributed four.

Ali Eid and Mujtaba Alzaimoor finished with three goals apiece, while Qassim Qambar and Komail Mahfoodh added two each.

Mohammed Mirza and skipper Hussain Al Sayyad rounded off the national team’s scorers with one goal apiece.

For Denmark, Mathias Gidsel had a game-high nine goals. Simon Pytlick scored five while Lukas Jorgensen and Johan Hansen had four each.

The Danes claimed their second successive win and stayed atop the group standings, while already securing their place in the next round.

The Bahrainis are one of 32 national teams from five confederations competing in the worlds. They have been divided into eight groups for the preliminaries.

After a single round-robin, with the top three advancing from each group, the fourthranked nations will vie for the lower-tier President’s Cup.