Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal retain GCC volleyball title

Dubai: Defending champions Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia clinched the GCC clubs volleyball title for the second successive year.

They defeated Al Muharraq of Bahrain 3-0 (25-19, 25-19 and 25-15) in their last and final match in the 26th edition that ended yesterday at the Al Nasr Rashid Bin Hamdan indoor sports hall.

Al Hilal didn't face any difficulty in their last match against the Bahraini club who won the GCC title a record nine times.

They were off colour yesterday against the mighty Saudis who showed excellent form to satisfy their few supporters and proved that they are the best team in the tournament.

"Al Muharraq played well in the first and second sets where the result could have gone either way. But we dominated the third set to win the title," said Al Hilal's Serbian coach Moro Branislav.

He said the tournament was a tough one where five clubs were favourites to win the title. "I think even Sohar showed a good performance and improved."

Muharraq led early (3-2 and 5-3) with good efforts from Fadil Abbas, Abdullah Jasim and Wanchal Tabwises of Thailand.

Al Hilal recovered with powerful smashes by Ahmad Al Bakhit who was the man of the match, and strong blocks on the net.

They levelled 6-6, advanced 9-6 with successful blocks on the net by Majdi Toumi and Khalil Hajji. Al Hilal never looked back and went on to win the first set 25-19.

The Bahraini players made a lot of errors in the second and third set, crossing the line and touching the net on many occasions which cost them many points.

Al Hilal went on to win the second set 25-19 and the third 25-15.

Al Hilal's Ahmad Al Bakhit, Naif Bo Hasoon, Yasir Macawni, Majdi Toumi and Ebrahim Al Harby were outstanding.

Shaikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum attended the closing ceremony and presented the gold medals and trophy to the Al Hilal players. Al Arabi of Qatar won the silver and Muharraq clinched the bronze.

In yesterday's matches, Al Qadsia of Kuwait beat Sohar of Oman 3-0 (25-19, 25-14 and 25-22). Hosts Al Nasr finished fifth after losing to Al Arabi of Qatar 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21) yesterday.