Shabab lose Gulf clubs handball opener

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s Al Shabab suffered a disappointing start last night to their campaign in the 40th Gulf Clubs Handball Championship, currently being played in Doha.

The Bahraini outfit went down fighting to Al Rayyan of Qatar 30-36 in their first game in Group B of the preliminary round.

They trailed 16-18 at the half and could not recover in the final 30 minutes of play.

Bahrain is being represented by two clubs in the tournament.

The other are Al Dair, who are in Group A along with Burgan SC of Kuwait, Al Arabi of Qatar and Oman SC of Oman.

Shabab are also in the same pool with Al Kuwait SC of Kuwait and Mleeha of the UAE.

Shabab will be back in action when they take on Mleeha at 4pm tomorrow.

They then square off with Kuwait on Friday at 6pm.

Dair won their opening game against Burgan and return to action today when they face Oman at 4pm.

They then complete their opening round campaign on Thursday against Arabi at 6pm.

Dair and Shabab are hoping to improve on the silver-medal finish of Bahrain’s Al Najma Club in last year’s tournament, held in the Kingdom.