Al Najma narrowly miss out on win

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain and Asian clubs’ champions Al Najma Club suffered a last-second 26- 27 defeat to Barlinek Industria Kielce of Poland yesterday in their opening match of the prestigious IHF Men’s Super Globe in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The global competition, organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF), is in its 16th edition, with 12 champion clubs from around the world taking part.

Szymon Sicko scored in the very last second of the match to claim the win in Group D of the tournament’s preliminary round, where they are in the same pool as the San Francisco Calheat from the US.

A Mohammed Habib Ahmed effort with two minutes remaining gave the Bahrainis a slim 26- 25 edge after trailing by as many as five goals in the second half.

But then, with seven seconds remaining, another Ahmed shot was saved.

That came in between two Sicko goals, which included the decisive throw, as Najma missed out on a golden opportunity to complete an impressive comeback.

Najma will be looking to bounce back when they return to action today against the Calheat at 12.15pm, Bahrain time, at the same venue.

Ahmed finished as Najma’s leading scorer in the game yesterday against Barlinek Industria Kielce with eight goals, while Mujtaba Al Zaimour added six goals.

Hasan Mirza chipped in with four, while Mohammed Ali Abdulredha and Sayed Shubbar Ali had a goal each.

Hasan Madan, Belal Basham, Komail Mahfouz and Abdulla Al Zaimour chipped in with a goal apiece.

For Barlinek Industria Kielce, Artsem Karalek had five goals to pace the Poles, while Nicolas Tournat and Pawel Paczkowski finished with four each.

Group A in the preliminaries features Al Ahly of Egypt, Al Noor of Saudi and Barcelona from Spain; Group B includes Kuwait SC of Kuwait, San Fernando HB of Argentina and Fuchse Berlin of Germany; while Group C comprises defending champions SC Magdeburg of Germany, Khaleej from Saudi and University of Queensland from Australia.

At the end of a single round-robin, the top team in each group move on to the semi-finals, while the runners-up go to the fifth-to-eighth place bracket.

The bottom club in each group will play in the ninth-to-12th placement games to determine their final ranking.

Najma have a 16-player squad for the competition, many of whom are players on the Kingdom’s senior men’s national team.

Najma are participating in the event for the second time, following the 2018 edition when they finished seventh.

Najma secured their place in this year’s IHF Super Globe after being crowned champions of the 25th Asian Men’s Club League Championship, held last June in Isfahan, Iran.

The Bahrain handball giants also recently secured the Bahrain Handball Super Cup, held just last Friday when they defeated Al Shabab 23-21.

The match was a one-off contest that is the traditional opening fixture of the national handball season.