HANDBALL – Bahrain came one goal away from advancing to the main round of the 2025 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship last night.
Needing at least a draw to make it through, the kingdom’s senior men’s national team came up agonisingly short in a 25-26 defeat at Arena Zagreb in the Croatian capital.
The Bahrainis put up a tough fight in the game’s closing minutes – battling back from up to five goals down with just under a quarter-hour remaining. They managed to tie it at 24-all on a Jassim Khamis goal with over two minutes still to play, but Argentina’s Martin Nicolas Jung was then on target twice before the final buzzer, sealing the win for the South Americans.
With the result, Bahrain finished their Group H campaign in the tournament’s preliminary round with a winless record in three matches. They were eliminated from further title contention and will now play amongst seven other bottom-ranked teams from this phase in the worlds’ President’s Cup.
There are eight nations in this lower-tier competition. Bahrain will be in Group II along with the US and two other sides that will be determined today on the concluding day of the preliminaries.
The nationals were aiming to qualify for the main round for the third straight edition of the world championship. But with a generally young team featuring eight tournament debutants while also missing key veteran figures such as inspirational skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, they narrowly missed out, but not without a valiant fight.
The President’s Cup is scheduled to get underway on Wednesday. The Bahrainis will play three games in Group II before competing for their final world championship classification between 25th and 32nd.
Bahrain’s best finish in the worlds was in the previous competition in 2023, when they ranked an impressive 16th overall.
In last night’s contest, the nationals fell behind early and faced an 11-16 deficit at the half. They continued to trail early on after the break but did not give up and tried to gradually claw their way back.
Mohammed Habib Nasser scored to make it 19-23 and then Ahmed Redha had his own goal on a fast-break to get Bahrain back to within three with a little over 10 minutes to play.
Khamis then struck to cut the deficit to two and Bahrain’s veteran stopper Mohammed Abdulhussain made a brilliant save on a shot by Argentina’s Pedro Cami Garcia. Hussain Abdulla then fired in to make it 23-24, and then after misses from both Nicolas Bono and Abdulla, Abdulhussain crucially kept out a penalty by Argentina’s Ramiro Martinez.
That set the stage for Khamis’s incredible tying goal, but Jung replied right back from nine metres and then later scored again with less than a minute on the clock. On the previous possession, a Mujtaba Al Zaimour effort was saved by Argentina’s Leonel Carlos Sergio Maciel.
Mohammed Habib Ahmed had a late penalty conversion with 23 seconds remaining to peg the final score.
Ahmed finished as Bahrain’s top scorer with six goals in the loss, while Khamis and Nasser added four apiece. Redha and Al Zaimour contributed three goals each, while Abdulla and Ali Eid had two apiece. Qassim Qambar completed the score sheet with a goal.
Martinez finished with an impressive game-high of 10 goals in Argentina’s win. Gracia and Jung chipped in with two apiece.
The Argentinians advanced to the main round along with Group H hosts Croatia and African giants Egypt, who locked horns in yesterday’s other divisional clash to determine first place.
This year’s worlds are being co-hosted by Croatia, Denmark and Norway. There are eight groups of four teams apiece in the preliminaries, with the top three from each continuing their title bids and the bottom eight playing for the President’s Cup.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
Top stories for today:
His Majesty approves legislative amendments
Bahrain’s strong relations with Britain are reviewed
Shura proposes rethink on fees discount for elderly
&uuid=(email))