Bahrain handball team named for historic Olympics debut

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The final roster of Bahrain’s senior men’s national handball team that will be making a historic maiden appearance at the Olympic Games later this month was named last night.

A 16-player line-up was announced for Tokyo as head coach Aron Kristjansson made his final cuts. The squad includes Hussain Al Sayyad, Mohammed Mirza, Mohammed Abdulhussain, Ali Mirza, Mohammed Abdulredha, Hassan Al Samaheeji, Mohammed Habib Madan, Ahmed Al Maqabi, Al Eid, Bilal Basham, Mahdi Saad, Kumail Mahfoodh, Ahmed Jalal, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Hassan Mirza and Hussan Mahfoodh.

The Bahrainis are scheduled to leave for Japan on Friday as they make the final lead-up to the Games. Prior to the start of the men’s handball tournament on July 24, the nationals will play a few friendly matches to warm up for their Olympics bid. Bahrain are in Group B of the preliminary stage, where they will go up against Egypt, Portugal, hosts Japan, world championship silver-medallists Sweden, and reigning world and Olympic champions Denmark.

Group A consists of Norway, France, Germany, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. The Bahrainis open their tournament campaign against Sweden on July 24.

They then take on Portugal on July 26, and then face Denmark two days later. Bahrain squares off with fellow-Asian side Japan on July 30, before completing the preliminaries against Egypt on August 1. The Bahrainis booked their berth at the Tokyo Games after winning the Men’s Asian Qualification Tournament held in Doha in October of 2019, defeating South Korea in the final.