Spikers miss quarters despite Oman sweep

TDT | Manama

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Bahrain missed out on the quarter-finals of the AVC Volleyball Men’s Continental Championship 2026 despite completing their preliminary-round campaign with a straight-sets victory over Oman yesterday.

The kingdom’s senior men’s volleyball team won 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-23) at Kitakyushu City General Gymnasium in Fukuoka, Japan, securing their first victory of the tournament and finishing third in Pool A behind Japan and Australia.

The nationals, coached by Montenegrin Ivan Joksimovic, took the opening two sets with authority before holding off a stronger Omani challenge in the third to wrap up the contest in one hour and 34 minutes.

Sayed Hashem Ali led Bahrain’s scoring with 12 points, including 11 in attack and one block, while Hassan Haider also played an important role at the net.

The result provided a positive end to a difficult opening stage following successive 3-0 defeats against Australia and defending champions Japan.

However, only the two best third-placed teams advanced alongside the top two from each of the three groups. Chinese Taipei secured one of those places, while India claimed the other ahead of Bahrain on points ratio.

Hosts Japan, Australia, Iran, China, Thailand and South Korea qualified automatically, completing the eight-team quarter-final line-up.

Despite falling short of the last eight, Joksimovic said the victory provided an important boost to the team’s morale and world ranking.

“The win was extremely important for us, not only from a morale standpoint but also for the world rankings,” he said.

“It earned us nine ranking points and moved us up five places in the FIVB standings. Although we did not achieve our goal of reaching the quarter-finals, we leave with an important gain and must continue building on it.”

The continental championship offers two further rewards beyond the Asian title. The winners will secure the tournament’s sole direct qualification place for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, while the top three finishers will earn berths at the 2027 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Cup.