Thursday 26 / December / 2024
Muscat: For the third successive time in the Men’s Junior AHF Cup, hosts Oman had to settle for a silver medal.
On Thursday evening, Bangladesh edged past Oman after a penalty shoot-out 7-6 to clinch the Men’s Junior AHF Cup Muscat 2023 title at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
Both Oman and Bangladesh were forced to go into the shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Oman have made it to the final of this tournament on three successive editions, starting from 2014 in Dhaka. They lost to Bangladesh in 2014 and then over the past two editions, hosted in Muscat (2019 and 2023), Oman lost to China and Bangladesh in penalty shootout, respectively.
Thailand finished third in the tournament after defeating Uzbekistan 2-1, also in a penalty shoot-out after the teams were locked 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
Bangladesh’s Amirul Islam won the top-scorer award with nine goals while Oman’s Maadh al Atabi was adjudged the man of the match of the final. Oman captain Osama Barazahan claimed the best player of the tournament award while Uzbekistan’s Amur Ismoilov won the promising player award.
All the semifinalists - Oman, Bangladesh, Thailand and Uzbekistan have qualified for the Junior Asia Cup 2023. This was the sixth edition of the junior U21 hockey tournament, having begun in 2003, and serves as a qualifier for the Junior Asia Cup and the second title for Bangladesh. Oman have won the title once in 2008.
