Bahrain are crowned back-to-back Asian U-19 handball champs

Bahrain team players and officials receive the champions' trophy

Bahrain were this evening crowned back-to-back champions in the eighth Asian Men’s Youth (U-18) Handball Championship, which concluded in Amman.

The Bahrainis clinched the prestigious title after beating their counterparts from Japan 34-31 in the final, played at Princess Sumaya Hall.

It was their second gold medal in a row in the prestigious biennial competition, as tonight’s final was a re-match of the previous event’s title-decider in 2016 when the event was held in Bahrain.

Moayed Shuaib and Qasim Qambar came up big for Bahrain in the final, as each scored eight goals to spearhead their squad.

Hiroto Shimizu was the top scorer for the Japanese with seven goals.

The Bahrainis held a slim 17-16 lead at the end of the first half, and did just enough to put their opponents away in the final 30 minutes.

Bahrain Handball Association President Ali Isa was present at the final. He congratulated the team and joined in on their celebrations after receiving their champions’ trophy.

Meanwhile, Chinese-Taipei claimed the bronze medals after defeating Saudi Arabia 29-26 in the game for third place.

FINAL RANKINGS: 1 Bahrain, 2 Japan, 3 Chinese Taipei, 4 Saudi Arabia, 5 Iran, 6 India, 7 Jordan, 8 China, 9 Qatar, 10 UAE, 11 Oman, 12 Syria, *Iraq DQ, *South Korea DQ.

*Iraq and South Korea were disqualified after both teams were ruled by the Asian Handball Federation to have been intentionally trying to lose their head-to-head match held on September 18 during the group stage.