Opening victory for Bahrain

Manama : Hosts Bahrain under coach Yousuf Khalifa Alasbool delighted the crowds as they defeated Egypt 3-1 (25-17, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20) in its opening Pool A match last night in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa.

In the opening set, it was fairly tight at 8-7 before Bahrain took control with a lead of 17-13 and soon took a 1-0 lead after a strong finish, while the second set saw Bahrain take a 13-10 lead and finished strongly to go 2-0 up in the match. 

The national team suffered a setback in the third set as the Egyptians raced into an early 9-3 lead and stayed ahead throughout to fierce a fourth set.

After a tough start to the fourth set with the score at 9-8, Bahrain had a good middle set spell and held on to its advantage for a maiden victory in the championship. Hussain Thamer (21 points) led the scoring for Bahrain, while other contributions came from Sayed Alabbar (10) and Hassan Haider (9) and Mahmood Abdulhussain (9), Haider also had four blocks, while Mohammed Jassim finished with six.

“This is a good start for us,” Bahrain’s head coach Yousef Khalifa said. “This is the world championship; we must play every game like a champion.”

In the other Pool A match, Puerto Rico edged out Tunisia in a thriller 3-2 (20-25, 25-18, 30-32, 25-22, 17-15) inspired by top scorer Gabriel Garcia with 30 points and supported by Pedro Molina (11), while Hedi Kazri (15) and Salem Naffeti (13) were the main scorers for Tunisia.   

France shocked one of the pre-tournament favourites Brazil in Pool B with a come from behind 2-0 sets deficit to win 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-17, 25-17, 17-15).

The win was due to fine scoring by Remi Bassereau (31) after the fifth and final set was in the balance to the end with the lead changing a number of times, until the French scored two unanswered points with the score tied at 15-15, top scoring for Brazil was Victor Aleksander Al Meid a (26).

Italy in Pool D produced a fine 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 30-28) win over the current European Champions the Czech Republic. Top scoring for Italy was Diego Cantagalli (16) and Lorenzo Cortesia (12). 

Other scores: 

Pool B: Japan (Kento Miyaura 11, Tatsanori Otsuka 11) bt Cuba (Lazaro Yoelvis Brunet Llanes (17) 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-12).  

Pool C: Russia (Maksim Sapozhkov 18) bt Turkey (Adis Lagumdzlja 7) 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-12). South Korea bt Chile 3-0 (25-12, 25-20, 25-21).

Today’s Schedule:

1pm: Pool B: France vs Cuba. Pool C: Chile vs Turkey

3pm: Pool B: Poland vs Brazil. Pool C: Argentina vs Russia

5pm: Pool A: Puerto Rico vs Egypt. Pool D: Mexico vs Czech Republic

7pm: Pool A: Bahrain vs USA. Pool D: Italy vs Iran