HANDBALL – Bahrain beat Kuwait 26-17 in the third-place play-off of the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship at the Khalifa Sports City Hall yesterday.
The win constituted some consolation for the host team’s players, most of whom had been reduced to tears after losing 20-17 to Japan in the semi-final on Tuesday night.
But, when they took to the court yesterday, the Bahrain players displayed a committed determination to the task at hand as they set about taking a 12-6 lead at half-time.
After five minutes in the second half, Bahrain had extended their lead to eight goals, at 14-6, and, by the 45th minute, were still ahead by eight goals, at 18-10.
Five minutes later, they had extended their lead to nine goals, at 21-12.
Kuwait’s Mohammed Ghadhanfar then scored to reduce the deficit to eight goals again, at 21-13, but Bahrain’s Yaseen Mujtaba replied almost immediately with a goal of his own with the scoreboard now reading 22-13.
A minute later, Abdul Alshammari scored for Kuwait only for Bahrain’s Hasan Al Fardan to add another goal to his team’s tally.
In the 55th minute, Ghadhanfar broke through the Bahrain defence to make it 23-15 but the Kuwait players knew they didn’t have enough time to catch up with their opponents with only five minutes left on the clock.
Abdulaziz Salmeen brought Kuwait’s deficit down to seven with a fine goal in the 26th minute but Bahrain’s Ali Eid pushed it back up to eight goals barely 30 seconds later.
A minute and a half later, Abdul Alkhamees scored Kuwait’s last goal of the evening with about 120 seconds left which was enough time for Eid and Abdul Alzaimoor to net two more goals for Bahrain before the final buzzer sounded.
Final report – Page 31
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