The national Iranian men’s handball team defeated Oman at the main round of the 17th edition of the Asian Men’s Handball Championship in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain.

On Monday evening, the Iranian outfit, which had Saeed Barkhordari, Milad Masa’eli, Shahou Nosrati, Sajjad Estaki, Seyyed Ali Mousavi Mirzamani, Mahdi Mousavi, Salaman Barbat, Mohsen Babasafari Renani, Ehsan Abouei-Mehrizi, Hojjat Rahshenas, Sajjad Nadri, Saeed Heidarirad, Mehrdad Samsami, Afshin Sadeghi Askari, Omid Sekenari and Saeed Pourghasemi on its roster, notched up a 32-27 win against Omanis at Khalifa Sports City Stadium, also known as Isa Town Stadium, in Isa Town.

The Iranian sportsmen will return to action on Wednesday, when they will play in the fifth-sixth place classification match of the continental tournament against South Korea.

The Iranian squad progressed to the main round of the 17th edition of the Asian Men’s Handball Championship, after edging past the United Arab Emirates 34-32 in a Group B fixture on Saturday evening.

Iran had been drawn in Group B along with host Bahrain, China, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Japan, Oman, South Korea and Syria were in Group A of the Asian Men’s Handball Championship.

The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-final round, where winners will contest the gold medal match and losers settle for the third-place fixture – both scheduled for January 28.  

The 17th edition of the Asian Men’s Handball Championship, which serves as a qualifying tournament for the 2017 Men’s Handball World Championship in France, opened in Bahrain on January 15, and will finish on January 28.