The fifth edition of the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) ‘Mini Olympics’ finished on Thursday after two weeks of fierce competition between well over 3,000 students from 58 government and private schools across the Asian country.
Organised in partnership with the Bahrain Ministry of Education, 20 sports were featured from 8-22 March with handball taking place at the Bahrain Handball Association’s Um Al Hassam gym.
After an impressive opening ceremony at Isa Sports City’s Bahrain Volleyball Association gym in Riffa, His Majesty King Hamad Representative for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa inaugurated the event in the presence of other high-ranking sports officials.
The handball competition saw 13 teams take part, initially in two preliminary groups. Group A featured the schools of Barbar, Al Ittifaq, Tubli, Um Al Hassam, Bahrain Club, Al Ittihad and Al Noor, while Group B saw Samaheej, Al Ahli, Al Shabab, Al Tadamon, Hawar School and Al Dair compete.
The top two teams of each group qualified directly to the final four, played in a league format and consisting of Tubli and Barbar, who had finished first and second in Group A, and Samaheej and Al Ahli – the top two teams in Group B.
In the final round, Samaheej - who had won three and drawn two in the Preliminary Round - eventually won the title after beating Barbar (3:1), Al Ahli (5:3) and Tubli (4:2) to end with nine points, ahead of Barbar (7) in second and joint bronze-medallists Al Ahli and Tubli (4 each).
The Bahrain Mini Olympics have run every year since 2014 and aim to ‘expand sports culture within the national community and spread the principles of Olympism.’
Photo: Bahrain Olympic Committee