Bahrain take handball silver medal at Asian Games
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain took the silver medals yesterday in the men’s handball tournament at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The Kingdom’s senior national team had to settle for the competition’s runners-up spot after losing 25-32 to fellow-Gulf side Qatar, who won the gold medals for the third successive Asiad.
The defeat earned the Bahrainis their second straight silver medals and third overall in the history of the Asian Games. They had previously claimed the bronze medals in 2014 in Incheon, South Korea, before coming away with silver at the previous edition in 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In both years, the Qataris were crowned champions and have now claimed a hat-trick. Bahrain are still looking to capture their maiden Asiad men’s handball title. Following yesterday’s final, played at Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre, the podium placers were presented their respective medals and trophies in an awarding ceremony.
Bahrain Handball Association president Ali Issa handed over the Bahrainis their medals. Kuwait clinched the bronze medals after defeating Japan 31-30 in the game for third place, thus making for an all-GCC top three.
With yesterday’s results, Bahrain came away with their second silver medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games, bringing their overall tally so far to 17, ranking them ninth on the medal table based on gold and 15th overall amongst the 36 nations to have stepped on the podium in all sports.
Their silver is the national delegation’s only medal to date outside of athletics, where the other 10 gold and six bronze medals have been won. Bahrain continued to be the top-ranked Arab nation on the medal standings.
In yesterday’s gold medal contest, the nationals had a brilliant start, going ahead 4-1 and staying in the lead for the entire first half. They went ahead 11-7 following a Mohammed Habib Nasser conversion from nine metres and despite Qatar fighting back to within one, 10-11, on a Rafael Capote shot, goals from Hassan Madan and Ahmed Fadhel helped the Bahrainis head into the interval with a slim 14-12 advantage.
The nationals then started the final 30-minute period from where they left off, and a Qassim Qambar penalty made it 15-12. But the Qataris then went on a decisive 10-3 run to completely wrest away the momentum and take full control of the match in just under 10 minutes.
Capote sparked that rally with a goal from the nine-metre line, and then scored again from that distance to give Qatar a 22-18 lead with 20 minutes to play. Despite their best efforts, the Bahrainis never recovered and the Qataris continued to build on the deficit over the closing minutes en route to the seven-goal winning margin.
Qatar outscored Bahrain 20-11 in the entire second half. Leading Bahrain’s valiant effort in the game was Qambar, who scored five goals, while Nasser had four. Skipper Hussain Al Sayyad and Mohammed Habib Ahmed added three apiece, while Madan, Hassan Al Samaheeji and Ali Mirza scored twice each. All contributing a goal in the game were Mohammed Rabea, Ahmed Fadhel, Mohammed Mirza and Mahdi Saad.
Goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain made eight saves in the contest. For Qatar, Capote had eight goals while Allaedine Berrched chipped in with five. Amine Guehis and Abdulrazzaq Murad finished with four goals each.
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