Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: After a narrow loss to Oman bounced back with a upset win over Spain on Tuesday night and enhanced their grip in Group B with a thumping win over Uruguay Wednesday morning in the ongoing Men's World Beach Handball Championship at Budapest.
According to information received here, Oman caused one of the first real upsets in the men’s competition as they beat the strong Spain side 13-12 on penalty shots.
At the final buzzer there were rapturous scenes on court as the Omanis celebrated wildly.
Oman's final verdict read 2-1. After winning the first set 17-16, Spain bounced back 17-19 to force the penalty shoot out, which went in Oman's favour 13-12.
After the match, Azan Ali Al Azan of Oman Handball Association could not hide his delight in beating Spain.
“I’m happy because we won and I hope we can give the fans some more wins here,” he was quoted by IHF.info.
“Spain are a good team and very strong, this is our first time we have beaten them and it is something big for me. I want to thank all and we want more.”
The new found confidence reflected in the performance against Uruguay on Wednesday morning.
Group B threw open on the second day as Spain got back to winning ways beating hosts Hungary 2-0 and Oman beat Uruguay by the same score.
But the real thrill came when Croatia stunned Australia 2-1 via penalties.
In Group A matches on Wednesday, Ukraine got off of the mark following their opening loss against USA as they beat Bahrain 2-1 after a tense shootout (7-6).
In the unofficial Pan American championship, Brazil asserted their authority in the region with a 2-0 win with ease against USA.
