Bahrain junior squad all set for World U21 Volleyball Championship

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-21 national volleyball team are all set to get their campaign underway in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2021.

In their first game on an opening day on Thursday, they will be going up against tournament co-hosts Bulgaria. The Bahraini squad, coached by Brazilian Issanaye Ramires, are taking part in the premier global junior competition for only the fifth time. The event is scheduled to continue until October 3, co-hosted by Italy.

The national team’s squad competing in the event includes Husain Ehsan, Hasan Alaiwi, Mohamed Ali, Hasan Warqa, Sayed Hashem Ali, Mohamed Ahmed, Abdulla Ebrahim, Ahmed Mohamed, Hasan Abdulla, Jaafar Alhayki, Ramadhan Husain, Mujtaba Alshakhoori, Isa Yaqoob, Husain Ahmed, Ali Yusuf, Sayed Amin Ebrahim, Bader Husain, Ismaeel Almansoori and Mohamed Alali.

The Bahrainis have played a number of international friendly matches ahead of the competition. The nationals are in Pool B of the tournament’s preliminary round alongside Cuba, Poland and the Bulgarians. Following their game against Bulgaria, the Bahrainis take on Poland on Friday, before facing off with Cuba on Saturday.

There are a total of16 nations taking part in the competition. The teams in Pool A include Italy, Egypt, the Czech Republic, and Thailand; Pool C consists of Iran, Argentina, Morocco and Belgium; while Pool D features Russia, Brazil, Cameroon and Canada. Following the first stage, the top two teams from each pool move on to the final eight in Pools E and F in the second round. The bottom two will play for the ninth to 16th places in Pools G and H.

That will set the stage for the last four, and then the bronze and gold medal games, plus the final classification matches. Bahrain qualified for the under-21 worlds based on their FIVB U21 World Ranking.

They were one of four teams to book their slots this way, with the others being Poland, the Czech Republic and Morocco. The previous under-21 worlds was held in Bahrain in 2019.

Iran won the gold medals then, while Italy claimed the silver and Brazil clinched bronze. The Bahrainis put on a spirited fight at home and took an impressive eighth place overall.