BAHRAIN stunned Denmark 35-31 yesterday in the seventh IHF Men’s Youth World Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The under-19 nationals put on an inspired performance in which they led for virtually the entire contest, except for a brief period early on when they went down 1-2.
Four unanswered goals, including two from centre back Ahmed Ali, gave the Bahrainis a 5-2 advantage and they never looked back.
Ali converted once again to make it 12-8, and then right wing Ahmed Fadul made it 17-12. Left back Abdulla Alzaimoor scored right before half-time to help Bahrain take a narrow 20-16 advantage at the interval.
Fadul was in brilliant form in leading the winners. He finished with a game-high 11 goals. Ali contributed seven, Pivot Yusuf Alqasimi finished with six and left back Abdulla Ali scored five goals.
Rounding out Bahrain’s scorers were Alzaimoor with three, left wing Fadhel Almaqabi with two and pivot Mohammed Eid with one goal.
Left back Emil Laerke paced Denmark with 10 goals while right wing Nqsikolai Vinther had six and left wing Emil Jakobsen five.
With the result, the Bahrainis came away with their first victory in group ‘A’ of the competition’s preliminary round. They bounced back from a disheartening 20-42 defeat at the hands of defending champions France in their opening game.
They will be hoping to continue their good form today when they take on Norway in a game scheduled for 1pm, Bahrain time.
The Bahrainis are underdogs in the competition.
This is the seventh edition of the event and only the third time Bahrain are competing.
The nationals first appeared in the tournament when the Kingdom of Bahrain hosted the event in 2007. Their last participation was in 2011 when the competition took place in Argentina.
Bahrain finished eighth overall out of 16 countries in 2007, and then were classified 17th overall amongst 20 teams in 2011.