Egypt defeated Bahrain 30-20 in their handball men’s preliminary round match at Yoyogi National Stadium on Sunday to finish second in Group B and progress to Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
With four wins and one loss, Egypt finished behind group winners Denmark — who beat Portugal 34-28 yesterday — and will now face Germany in their next match.
Egypt has never won a medal in the handball Olympic competition but will now have their eyes on a podium finish at Tokyo 2020.
The Pharaohs opened their Olympic campaign with a 37-31 win over Portugal on July 24, but two days later lost their second fixture 32-27 to Denmark. However, since then the Egyptian team has been faultless, beating hosts Japan 33-29 and Sweden 27-22 before this morning’s win over fellow Arab competitors Bahrain.
Egypt progressively improved throughout the first half to take a commanding lead of 15-7 by the break. Despite a spirited performance by Bahrain that saw them score 13 points in the second half, Egypt managed to double their tally for an ultimately comfortable win.
The 37-year-old veteran Ahmed El-Ahmar was once again the team’s standout performer, scoring five goals to take his overall tally to a Egyptian Olympic record of 83. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Mohamed El-Tayar had another fine game against Bahrain, saving 15 of the 35 shots that he faced.
