Qatar handball team in action in their bronze medal playoff match against Norway at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, yesterday.

Agencies/Nanjing

Qatar could not push their performance bar higher and finished as the fourth-best team in men’s section at the second Youth Olympic Games handball competition yesterday.

At the Jiangning Sports Centre, Qatar, playing the bronze medal playoff, lost the match to Norway 25-33.

Slovenia, later in the day, clinched the gold medal, dethroning Egypt 31-25. The champions were narrowly ahead at the interval (13-11). Powered by Gal Marguc and Blaz Janc, who blasted eight goals each, Slovenia took the match in their grip and did never let it slip off. Ali Refaat was the main striker for Egypt with five goals.

After days of intense competition in Nanjing, the responsibility of winning a medal had fallen on the Qatar handball team and 800m runner Idriss Moussa Yousef.

Qatar, however, appeared to be struggling to overcome the setback of losing the semi-final to Egypt. The kind of spark and flair that were needed against Norway, were missing a bit and the European team controlled the proceedings after Qatar failed to utilise early fast breaks and attacks.

After tying scores thrice inside six minutes, Norway forged 6-3 ahead through the tall, left-handed Magnus Abelvik Rod’s double strike and Aksel Horgen. Thereafter, it was an uphill battle for Qatar to return into the match.

The gap kept widening and it was 14-8 by 21 minutes. Qatar tried to bounce back and reduce the deficit a bit but Norway again increased it to six goals at the interval (19-13).

There was some early pressure by Qatar after the resumption and their best moments in the match were when they struck three goals in a row to come close (21-25). Norway quickly stepped up the attack and scotched any hopes of comeback that Qatar had.

Rod was outstanding and contributed 11 goals alone for the winners, despite suffering two suspensions of two minute each. Horgen netted six. Eirik Kopp, Tormod Hauane and Sinder Andre Aho all cracked  four goals each.

For Qatar, Faruk Colo was the top-scorer with six. Amor Dhiab had five. Six players—Jovo Damjankovic, Abdulaziz Helali, Adson Bajrik, Amine Guehis, Nour Ahmed and Mohamed Abdelraouf, chipped in with two each.

Coach Chouaib Kafi said he was hoping his team would be able to return home with a medal but it was not possible for his inexperienced team.

“We came to Nanjing with the preparations for the upcoming Asia Cup in mind. If we had won something, it’d have been an icing on the cake. We tried our best but the competition level was quite different here.

“Next week, we’ve to go to Jordan to play in the Asian youth championship, which is also very important and will decide the qualifiers for the World Championships in Russia. That is also high on our priority list. The fourth place is also good for us.”

Koreans win women’s gold

South Korea put up a gritty show to hold off Russia in the women’s gold medal match 32-31. The winners led 17-14 at the break but faced a stronger bid by the rivals to snatch the gold.

Kang Kyungmin led South Korea’s scoring and slammed a dozen goals. Other notable scorers were Kim Seongeun (six), Kang Dahye (five) and Yu Sejeong (four). For Russia, Yulia Golikova (seven), Yulia Markova (seven), Elizaveta Malashenko (four) and  Yaroslava Frolova (four) were the principal contributors. Sweden clinched the bronze medal, outclassing Brazil 23-16.

Idriss exit ends Qatar campaign

 Qatar’s campaign at the Youth Games came to an unfortunate end with Idriss Moussa Yousef being disqualified on the ground of technical reason in the men’s 800m A final later yesterday.

Early in the evening, when Qatar suffered defeat against Norway in the bronze medal match in handball, it had become evident that Yousef would be the last medal hope.

Yousef perhaps knew it and in a hurry to get to the front-running group, he committed the infringement of the lane rule. As a result, though he finished sixth in the race, won by American Myles Marshall, the result of the Qatari runner was declared disqualified.

Yousef tried his best to place himself in the leading bunch. After the first lap, he moved up to be at the fifth spot.

As the race drew to the close, Moroccan Mohamed Elamrani attacked and Marshall quickly shifted into higher gears, scotching his bid to come to the front. Then as the finish line loomed closer, Marshal accelerated and won the gold medal in 1:49.14. Behind Elamrani and Australian Ryan Patterson, Yousef had finished the race in the sixth place. His time was 1:50.93, a shade slower than his personal best of 1:50.77.