Bahrain rout Uzbekistan in handball

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain continued their dominant start to the men’s handball tournament yesterday at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

The senior men’s national team defeated their counterparts from Uzbekistan 47-25 to secure first place in Group C of the competition’s preliminary round.

Bahrain Olympic Committee secretary general Mustafa Al Kooehji and Bahrain Handball Association president Ali Issa were among the officials who attended the contest.

It was their second straight big win of the preliminaries following their 45-22 demolition of Kazakhstan, and it sent them into the next stage with an unbeaten record.

In the ensuing main round, the Bahrainis have been placed in Group One alongside South Korea, Kuwait and Iran.

Group Two features Qatar, Japan, China and the Kazakhs.

Here, teams will play another single round-robin, and then the top two from each group move on to the semi-finals, which are scheduled to be held on Tuesday.

The gold and bronze medal matches will be played Thursday.

The nationals begin main round schedule tomorrow against the South Koreans, and then face the Iranians the next day.

They then take on Kuwait in their concluding fixture on Sunday prior to the last four.

In Bahrain’s win yesterday, the nationals were the aggressors from the opening throw and never wavered.

They led 25-8 at the half en route to closing out the 22-goal victory. Skipper Hussain Al Sayyad and Mahdi Saad top scored for the Bahrainis with seven goals apiece.

Hassan Al Samaheeji added five, while Ahmed Fadhel and Mohammed Rabea scored four each.

Five players finished with three goals for Bahrain, including Qassim Qambar, Hasan Madan, Ali Mirza, Mohammed Habib Ahmed and Mohammed Naser, while Mohammed Mirza and Hassan Mirza contributed two goals.

The team’s scoresheet was rounded off by Ali Eid’s one goal. Pacing the Uzbeks in the loss was Jakhongir Zaripov with seven goals, while Azizbek Alimbekov finished with five.

Coached by Icelandic tactician Aron Kristjansson, Bahrain are looking for their first-ever men’s handball gold in the quadrennial Asiad.

They had previously won the silver medals at the previous edition of the Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018, and before that took the bronze medals at the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea.