Dar Kulaib win in Arab clubs volleyball

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Dar Kulaib wrapped up their preliminary round campaign in the 42nd Arab Clubs Volleyball Championship in Amman yesterday with a hard-earned 3-1 (29-27, 25- 17, 21-25, 25-15) victory over Police SC of Qatar.

The national league champions claimed their fourth win in their five Group B games in this stage of the tournament.

They now head into the quarter-finals, with their seeding and opponents determined following the completion of the preliminary fixtures.

Dar Kulaib’s triumph followed their only loss at the Jordanian capital on Friday against Libya’s Asswehly SC.

They had won their first three games against North Refineries of Iraq, Burgan SC of Kuwait, and Eira of Jordan.

Najma were spearheaded in their win yesterday by top Bahraini talents Mohammed Yaqoob, Ali Mohammed, Hassan Alaiwi, Ali Habib, Hassan Al Warqa, Abdulla Mohammed, Mahmoud Abdulwahed, and professionals Caio Oliveira of Brazil and Aleksey Karpenko of Russia.

Meanwhile, also yesterday, Al Najma suffered a 0-3 (23-25, 23-25, 21-25) loss to Qatar SC in their concluding contest of Group A.

The result moved them to the brink of elimination.

They had won just one of their five outings against Jordan’s Shabab Al Hussein, while also going down to Al Ahly Benghazi of Libya, Kazma of Kuwait, and Seeb of Oman.

Najma relied on Fadhel Abbas, Hassan Dhahi, Hussain Mahdi, Mahmood Hassan, Sayed Hashem Issa and Swedish import Jacob Link in the competition.

Today is a rest day. With the top four teams from each pool advancing to the knockouts, the quarter-finals will be held tomorrow.

That will be followed by the semi-finals on Tuesday, and then the final and game for third place will be held on the tournament’s final day on Wednesday.