Bahrain name full-strength squad for world championships

TDT | Manama                           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain have named a full-strength, 19-player squad to compete in the 28th International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Handball World Championship, taking place 11 to 29 January, co-hosted by Poland and Sweden.

The roster was announced yesterday by the Bahrain Handball Association. Senior men’s national team head coach Aron Kristjansson from Iceland has selected a number of his most talented veteran stars to spearhead the team.

Among them are long-time skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, Mohammed Mirza, Ali Mirza, Jassim Al Salatna, and goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain. The rest of the team features the always dependable Mohammed Habib Mohammed, Ali Eid, Hasan Alsamaheeji, Ahmed Fadhul, Mohammed Ali, Hassan Mirza and Komail Mahfoodh, as well as Hesham Ahmed Isa, Qassim Qambar, Abdulla Alzaimoor, Mujtaba Alzaimoor, Mahmood Hussain Mohammed, Muntadher Ebrahim Ali and Abdulla Ali.

The nationals have been training over the past several weeks under Kristjansson in the Kingdom. During this period, they played five friendly games against top international opponents, including two against Egypt, one with Saudi Arabia and another two facing visiting European giants Belarus.

Both Egypt and Saudi are also set to compete amongst the 32 nations in the worlds. Prior to the global tournament, the Bahrainis are scheduled to have a training camp and warm-up tournament in Spain.

The other nations in the friendly event are Argentina, Romania and the host Spaniards. Argentina and Spain are another two sides set to be playing in the global showcase. Bahrain have been drawn in Group H for the worlds alongside Denmark, Belgium and Tunisia.

The Danes are the heavy favourites, being the defending world champions, while the Belgians are making their first-ever appearance at the worlds. The 32 national teams from five confederations have been divided into eight groups for the tournament’s preliminary stage.

The Bahrainis are one of five countries from Asia. They qualified as the runners-up from the continental championship held last year. Bahrain’s games in Group H will be played in Malmo, Sweden. They open their campaign on 13 January against Tunisia, and then face off with Denmark on 15 January.

Their final fixture of the first stage will be against Belgium on 17 January. The world championship will see the top three teams from each of the eight preliminary round groups move on to the main round, where they will be divided into four further groups of six teams apiece.

The other eight squads will vie for the President’s Cup. The upcoming event will mark Bahrain’s fifth appearance at global handball’s premier competition, and fourth straight. The nationals had previously also played in the 2011, 2017, 2019 and 2021 editions.