Beach Handball World Championship: Oman goes down fighting

Date

7/14/2016 12:47:32 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily)

Oman fought gallantly against its fancied opponent and European giant Croatia before going down 4-6 in a shootout in their opening Group B clash of the seventh Beach Handball WorldChampionships that began at Palatinus Bath on Margaret Island in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.

Up against the European champion, Oman lost the first game 16-24, but came back strongly to clinch the second one 26-18 and leave the match tied at 1-1, forcing a shootout.

It took a stroke of luck for Croatia to clinch the win as Ivan Dumencic, who plays club handball in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hit the bar and his shot rebounded into the goal off the back of Oman goalkeeper, Muneer al Balushi, who was down on the ground.

Oman's Asaad al Hassani was the top-scorer for his team with a total of 16 goals.

Coach Hamood al Hassani said the 'team performed at a good level' in its opening encounter against Croatia.

Oman's performance was praiseworthy given the fact that it came against a former world champion (2010) and a team that has consistently finished at the top three at international tournaments since 2005 as many as 11 times.

'I thank the players for the fight against Croatia and I hope they show the same spirit in the upcoming games,' said Hassani.

Oman is scheduled to play Spain later in the evening on Tuesday, and then it meets Uruguay and Australia on Wednesday.

In the other group matches, Hungary eased to a 2-0 victory against Uruguay and Spain had a 2-0 win against Australia.

Meanwhile, defending champion Brazil opened its defence of the championship with a Group A win against Egypt, but it was made to toil, eventually winning 7-5 in a shootout. Nailson Amaraltop-scored with 18 points.

The all-Asian Group A contest between Qatar and Bahrain ended in an easy 2-0 win for the Qataris as Anis Zouaoui smashed home 18 points.

The final match of the morning saw a little bit of Pan American history being scripted as the US, appearing in its first ever world championship, won 2-0 against Ukraine as Andrew Donlin top-scored with 12 points.

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