Abdulwahed retained as junior national volleyball team coach

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

The Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) have announced that it has retained Tunisian tactician Saber Abdulwahed as head coach of the Kingdom’s junior national volleyball team.

Abdulwahed is set to guide his squad in the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship, which will be held in Bahrain from 7 to 16 July.

The tournament features 16 teams from five confederations around the world, with matches to be played at the Isa bin Rashid Arena at the Bahrain Volleyball Association headquarters at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

The competition is the premier tournament for junior national teams organised by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), the sport’s global governing body.

Abdulwahed was also in charge of Bahrain’s junior national volleyball team when they competed in the 21st Asian Men’s U20 Volleyball Championship, held in Bahrain last year.

There, they finished an impressive seventh overall amongst 17 participating nations.

The junior nationals have already begun preparing for the competition, which will mark the fourth time the Kingdom is staging the prestigious event.

Bahrain first hosted the under-21 worlds in 1987, and then did so again in 1997 and most recently in 2019.

Bahrain have qualified for the tournament as hosts. The Bahrainis are in Pool A along with Iran, Thailand and Tunisia. Pool B features defending champions Italy, Brazil, Egypt and Mexico.

Pool C consists of Poland, Bulgaria, Canada and India; while Pool D comprises Argentina, Belgium, the Czech Republic and the US.

The top two teams from each pool will advance to round-robin Pools E and F of the second phase, while the rest will move to Pools G and H to continue the battles for classification from eighth to 16th.

The winners and runners-up of Pools E and F will progress to the semi-finals and eventually determine the medallists.