Bahrain go down fighting to Brazil

TDT | Manama  

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain went down fighting to Brazil last night and were eliminated from further title contention in the 10th IHF Men’s Youth Handball World Championship, currently being held in Croatia. The Bahrainis put in a valiant effort but could not overcome the South American handball giants in a 22-28 loss in both teams’ final fixture in Group D of the tournament’s preliminary round.

The result was the second successive loss for the nationals in the competition. They had previously defeated South Korea in their opening game but then bowed to European powerhouses Spain prior to their Brazil setback. Bahrain will now compete for the President’s Cup in the lower-tier of the tournament, along with the Koreans. Spain and Brazil march through to the worlds’ main round as they continue their title bids.

In the President’s Cup, which will be awarded to the 17thplaced team overall at the end of the championship, the Bahrainis must first play in a Group II round-robin along with Iceland, Japan and Korea. They open against the Japanese tomorrow before facing Iceland on Tuesday.

The result from their 32-28 win against the Koreans in the preliminaries is being carried over. At the end of this stage, the top team in Group II will move on to play for 17th to 20th place, the second team will play for 21st to 24th, the third will compete for 25th to 28th and the fourth will be in the 29th to 32nd bracket. In last night’s game, the Bahrainis stood toe to toe with their opponents for the entire first half, but trailed marginally 13-14 heading into the interval.

The nationals then lost their momentum starting the final 30 minutes. After falling behind 17-20, they never recovered and went down by as many as the final margin of six goals before the final whistle. Mohamed Ali top scored for Bahrain in the loss with six goals, while Salman Alshowaikh and Abdulla Mohamed contributed four goals apiece.

Mohamed Almarzooq and Jaffar Farsan had two goals each, while Sayed Mahmood Alfalahi, Shuaib Abdulla, Ali Kadhem and Nooh Almusawi all chipped in with a single goal. For Brazil, Vinicius Perin and Vinicius Bertoldo scored five goals apiece to lead their team. The Bahrainis are coached by Icelandic tactician Maksim Akbachev.

They qualified for the worlds after placing fifth in the ninth Asian Men’s Youth Handball Championship hosted in the Kingdom last year. This year’s youth handball worlds is its first edition to feature a 32-team field. It is the fifth time Bahrain’s flag is being flown at the event. The Bahrainis also played in the 2007, 2011, 2017 and 2019 editions. Their best finish was eighth in 2007, when the competition took place in Bahrain.