JEDDAH, 4 March 2007 — Al-Khaleej club from the Eastern Province emerged the champions in the Arab Handball Championship when they outplayed Algerian club Shabibat Skikda 33-30 on Friday in Dammam. Third place went to Al-Qadisiya club from Saudi Arabia.
Khaleej, who were unbeaten throughout the event, began their road to success with a 33-24 win over Arbil of Iraq. They then defeated Al-Rabitah Al-Baydawi of Morocco 33-24 before overcoming Al-Wakrah of Qatar 32-29 to qualify for the final.
In the final, Khaleej ran up a 5-0 score in the first five minutes against Shabibat Skikda and looked like controlling the pace from there on. But Shabibat managed to get even at 6-6 few minutes later and matched their Saudi opponents in speed and skills in the first half to end the period level at 17-17 and honors even. The second half was a bit different with the Khaleej defense managing to block Shabibat’s efforts and Khaleej players Bandar Al-Harbi and Mohammed Al-Shayeb did it striking true repeatedly to give heir side some healthy cushion. Al-Harbi, especially, was in fine touch as he racked up the numbers steadily and surely. Khaleej.
Al-Harbi, speaking to Arab News over the phone from Dammam, said it was not easy. The majority of the team players were young and a load of pressure was on them. “We wanted to get done with it, but get done with it nicely and make the country proud,” he said. “Now we are of course glad of clinching the cup, especially with the cup being named after Prince Faisal ibn Fahd.”
Al-Harbi said, we expected to meet Al-Qadisiya in the final. However, he added, when I saw the match between Qadisiya and Shabibat in the quarterfinal I hoped we would meet Shabibat because it would be more exciting than meeting another Saudi team. But, of course, we would have loved to have Qadisiya placing second.
“The game went well, especially the second half,” he said, adding, “Young players like Mohammed Al-Shayeb managed to perform well during the match.”
Bandar Al-Harbi, who had just came back from a tremendous victory in the Gulf Cup for Clubs in UAE, with Al-Ahli, was transferred to Khaleej to play during the championship and managed to score the largest number of goals during the matches. Manaf Yousif, the goalkeeper from Ahli, and Hassan Al-Janbi, from Mudar Club, were also transferred to Khaleej.
Qadisiya crushed Wihdat Tarim of Yemen 54-21. They lost to Shabibat 32-30, and then beat Al-Wakrah of Qatar 30-23.
The championship saw action of seven clubs namely, Wehda Tarim (Yemen), Al-Arabi and Al-Wakrah (Qatar), Arbil (Iraq), Shabibat Skikda (Algeria), and hosts Al-Qadisiya and Al-Khaleej (Saudi Arabia).
Prince Jluwi ibn Abdulaziz ibn Musaid, deputy governor of the Eastern Province, attended the final and presented the trophies. Al-Arabi team of Qatar was picked the best team of the championship.
