BAHRAIN yesterday assured themselves of at least a silver medal in the men’s handball at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta after beating Japan 31-20 to book a berth in the final.
The Bahrainis put on a masterful display and thoroughly outplayed their opponents to keep hopes alive of striking their first-ever Asian Games handball gold.
Bahrain clash with Qatar on Friday in a final which is expected to be hugely physical as well as emotional.
The Qataris punched their tickets to the title match defeating South Korea 27-20 in the other semi-final yesterday.
Bahrain have already improved on their bronze performance in the previous Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, four years ago.
Bahrain caught up with Japan 5-5 with a Bilal Askani goal early in the first-half before gradually pulling away and a six-metre effort from the left by skipper Hussain Al Sayyad made it 9-6.
With just under 10 minutes left in the first-half, Askani was on target again to give Bahrain an 11-7 advantage which they extended to 15-9 following three unanswered goals right before the interval from Ali Merza, Al Sayyad and Mohamed Ahmed.
In the second-half, the Bahrainis built their first double-digit lead, 20-10, on an Askani shot. Mohamed Abdulredha got on the scoreboard to make it 23-11 and Bahrain did well to maintain a comfortable 12-goal margin the rest of the way.
Al Sayyad was in inspired form scoring 10 goals while Ahmed contributed four and Askani, Merza and Hasan Alsamahiji three each. Hasan Madan and Ali Salman contributed two goals apiece while Abdulredha, Mahmood Abdulqader, Komail Mahfoodh and Hasan Al Fardan were on target once each.
Jin Watanabe paced Japan with seven goals. Japan next face South Korea for the bronze on Friday.
Elsewhere yesterday, Bahrain’s equestrian team performed below par in the jumping individual event,
Sayed Adnan Alalawi, riding Baluu, finished 37th out of 63 riders with a score of 9.19. Shaikh Hasan bin Rashid Al Khalifa (11.8) on AW Vivika was 45th, Ahmed Maki on Consuela van Verst and Khaled Alkhatri on Sierra were tied for 63rd with 43.85 each.
The four Bahrainis will be in action again today in jumping individual qualifier 1.
Bahraini sailor Abdulla Janahi will also be back in the Laser Standard fleet in sailing.
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