Bahrain handball team step up Asian Games preparations

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’s senior men’s national team roster has been cut to 26 players from 31 for the second phase of their training programme in preparation for upcoming competitions.

The new list has been announced by the Bahrain Handball Association.

The nationals have been training locally under head coach Aron Kristjansson.

Among the tourna-ments they are gearing up for Hangzhou Asian Games, to be held in China this September and Oc-tober.

The roster includes the Kingdom’s four overseas-based professionals, including Hussain Al Sayyad, Ali Abdulqader, Ali Eid and Komail Mahfoudh.

From league champions Al Najma, there are Hassan Mirza, Qassim Qambar, Adel Afrouz, Moham-med Abdulhussain, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Mohammed Mirza and Ahmed Al Maqabi.

From Al Ahli are Abdulla Ali and Ali Mirza; from Al Dair, Hassan Al Samaheeji, Ali Al Asheeri, Hesham Isa, Hassan Madan and Hussain Abdulla; and from Al Shabab are Ahmed Jalal, Ahmed Redha, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, Salah Abduljaleel and Jassim Khamis.

The line-up is completed by Muntadher Ebrahim from Tadhamun and Mohammed Hameed and Ali Mahmood from Al Ettifaq.

The Bahrainis recently played two international friendly matches against Algeria at home, winning both.

The men’s handball competition in Hangzhou is scheduled to begin on September 24 and continue until October 4 and 5, when the medal-deciding matches will be held. Juniors Meanwhile, Bahrain’s junior national team have stepped up their preparations for their upcoming participation in the 2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, which will be held in Germany and Greece from June 20 to July 2.

The squad is training daily under coach Essam Abdulla and his assistant Raed Al Marzouq. There are currently 22 players on the squad, reduced from an initial list of 23.

The roster includes Abdulla Abdulkarim and Komail Fouad from Najma; Sadiq Jaafar and Hussain Ali from Tubli; Ahmed Redha, Ahmed Alwani and Jassim Khamis from Shabab; Mustafa Al Hayki, Hassan Khalil, Ahmed Al Zain and Hussain Al Hawaj from Ahli; Ali Al Asheeri, Hesham Isa and Mahmood Abdulhussain from Al Dair; Mohammed Hameed, Ali Jameel and Ali Mahmood from Al Ettifaq; Yasser Mohammed and Ali Madan from Barbar; Ali Redha and Ali Al Fardan from Tadhamun; and Mohammed Al Khunaizi from Al Ettihad.

The junior nationals are scheduled to play friendly matches against their counterparts from Saudi Arabia at the end of the month before travelling to Athens for an overseas training camp prior to the world championship.

There, they are scheduled to play warm-up games against Greece, Morocco and a European team participating in the global event.

Bahrain are in Group F for the worlds, alongside Sweden, Slovenia and Guinea.