Bahrain goes down fighting!

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’s under-21 national handball team battled hard but bowed to their counterparts from Hungary 21-27 last night in the 24th IHF Men’s Junior World Championship 2023, currently being hosted by Greece and Germany.

The Bahrainis stood toe to toe with their opponents for much of the first half and trailed by just two goals at the break, but could not keep up with the European handball giants in the closing stages.

Hungary’s six-goal winning margin was also their biggest advantage of the contest. Following the result, the Bahrainis now have two losses in Group III in the main round of the competition and are thus out of contention for the quarter-finals.

Their defeat to Sweden from the preliminary stage has been carried over to this phase, and they have just one fixture remaining against Denmark tonight, scheduled for a 7.45pm start, Bahrain time.

Despite being out of the running for the last eight, the nationals are already ensured of their best finish in the junior worlds—a place in the top 16— having been classified 17th overall the previous two times they played in the tournament in the 1995 and 2019 editions.

It only remains to be confirmed, following today’s games, if the Bahrainis will be playing in the ninth-to-12th final placement bracket or the 13th-to-16th.

In last night’s defeat, the nationals had a brilliant start and led 5-2 following a Jassim Khamis goal from the right. But the Hungarians fought back and tied it at 8-all, and Bahrain’s last lead of the game was 11-10 following an Ali Abdulla goal.

After going behind 12-14 at the break, Hungary began to assert themselves beginning the second half and slowly extended their advantage to 20-15 midway through the period.

The Bahrainis tried to claw their way back and got to within three goals, 19-22, following a conversion from Husain Saleh, but came no closer the rest of the way. Khamis finished as their leading scorer with six goals, while Saleh contributed four.

Ali Mohamed and Ali Alsheeri chipped in with three goals apiece, while Abdulla scored twice. Mahmood Alkhunaizi, Mohamed Rabia and Abdulla Ali completed the scoresheet with one goal each.

Bence Imre finished as the game’s leading scorer with nine goals for Hungary, while Erhard Sisa added four in their win. There are three other pools in this stage.

Group I includes Germany, Croatia, France and Tunisia; Group II consists of Portugal, the Faroe Islands, Spain and Brazil; and Group IV features Egypt, Iceland, Serbia and Greece.

The remaining teams who did not advance to the main round are in the consolation pools where they will play for the President’s Cup.

Group I includes Poland, Algeria, Libya and the US; Group II features Kuwait, Japan, Angola and Costa Rica; Group III consists of Slovenia, Norway, Argentina and Greenland; and Group IV consists of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Chile.