Bahrain in heavy loss to Japan

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain suffered a heavy 21- 33 loss to Japan last night in the 10th IHF Men’s Youth Handball World Championship, currently being held in Croatia.

The defeat was their first in the Group II of the President’s Cup—the lower-tier bracket of the worlds following the preliminary round that will determine teams classified 17th to 32nd.

The Bahrainis’ chances of competing for the President’s Cup, which is to be won by the 17th-ranked team, have diminished considerably. They will need a miracle win against European giants Iceland today in their concluding Group II fixture by a big margin of more than 30 goals, and also hope that South Korea beat the Japanese.

Iceland outclassed their Korean counterparts 38-23 in yesterday’s other division contest. The nationals are scheduled to face off with their Icelandic counterparts at 4.30pm, while the Koreans and Japanese clash at 2.30pm, both Bahrain time.

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.

The Bahrainis battled hard for much of the first half yesterday and equalled the Japanese goal for goal, but their opponents were able to widen the gap to a 13-10 edge at the break. After the re-start, Japan were dominant and gradually extended their lead, going up by as many as 13 goals en route to the final whistle.

Jaffar Farsan top scored for Bahrain with five goals in the loss, while Ali Mohamed added four. Ali Kadhem chipped in with three goals, Abdulla Mohamed, Sayed Mahmood Alfalahi and Mohamed Ali had two apiece, and Salman Alshowaikh, Shuaib Abdulla and Ahmed Fardan each scored once.

Kippei Furukawa scored six goals to lead the Japanese, while Masaki Sakai and Kotaro Tachibana had five apiece. Sakai was named the Player of the Match. 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. In the previous youth handball worlds in 2019, which featured 24 nations, the Bahrainis claimed the President’s Cup after defeating Chinese-Taipei 26-22 in their concluding ranking fixture.