(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) On a night when Qatar clinched the title hosts Oman kept their hopes alive for a berth in the World Championship with a 2-0 win over Pakistan in the Asian Beach Handball Championship at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex (SQSC) on Tuesday.
Fancied Qatar kept its slate clean with its fourth successive win posting a dominating 22-7 19-16 scoreline against Iran to seal the title with a match to spare. Qatar became the first of the three teams from Asia to qualify for the worlds that will be held in Hungary next year.
Action from the match between Jordan and Thailand on Tuesday
The Qataris garnered eight points from four matches and play Oman in their last game on Thursday. The win against Iran helped Qatar take an unassailable lead with Oman Iran Bahrain and Pakistan all jointly tied in second place with four points each.
Hosts Oman needed a win against Pakistan to remain in contention and the players rose to the occasion to win the match 17-16 19-18. In a late game on Tuesday Bahrain hammered Vietnam 25-13 28-8.
With the top three teams from the six countries scheduled to progress to the worlds Oman will now fight for one of the remaining two spots along with Bahrain Pakistan and Iran.
Oman has the toughest task as it faces in-form Qatar in their concluding tie. In the other final-round matches Pakistan plays bottom-placed Vietnam on Wednesday while Iran meets Bahrain on Thursday.
If the teams finish level on points head-to-head results will be taken into consideration. Oman has lost to Bahrain and Iran in the tournament.
In Tuesday's match between Oman and Pakistan both the sessions were decided by golden goal after the scores were level.
After the first session was held up on 16-16 in ten minutes of regulation-time Asad al Hassani scored the golden goal to give Oman the edge.
And then with the scores tied on 18-18 in the second session it was Oman's Hani al Dughaishi who made the star turn producing the match-winning shot.
Dughaishi stood out as Oman's standout player with a contribution of 19 points while Hasarath Hossain excelled for Pakistan with 14 points.
Oman team manager Talib al Afandi commended his team for a disciplined performance and said 'This was our day and the boys really put in their very best to win the match. We are confident of finishing among the top three.'
He added 'No one can now stop us because our players have reached their peak form. I am pretty confident the boys will be in the same form against Qatar.'
Pakistan coach Ahmad Riaz was disappointed with the day's result. 'We made a lot of mistakes in both the session. We were in a good position but couldn't add the finishing touches. We had good starts but our players lost concentration as the session progressed. Our shooting was poor too.'
Meanwhile in women's category Chinese Taipei beat Turkmenistan 20-11 19-12 to ensure a top-two finish among five nations and book a berth at the worlds. Thailand is the other team assured of a top-two spot and a ticket to the worlds after it defeated Jordan 20-19 14-12. Chinese Taipei will vie with Thailand for the trophy on Wednesday.
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