Bahrain squad set for junior handball worlds

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain announced yesterday the final 18-player line-up that will be competing at the 2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, set to be held in Germany and Greece from June 20 to July 2.

The Bahrainis have been training over the past several weeks with a squad of 22 players, and the Bahrain Handball Association (BHA) revealed yesterday the last cuts for the official roster that will be flying the Kingdom’s flag at the under-21 tournament.

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

The Bahrainis are scheduled to travel to Athens today morning for their final lead-up to the competition.

There, they will hold a training camp and be plying two warm-up games against their counterparts from Greece and one against Morocco, with the possibility of another friendly against a European team taking part in the worlds.

The travelling Bahraini delegation is being headed by BHA board member Abdulrazzaq Khalil.

It also includes head coach Essam Abdulla and his assistant Raed Al Marzouq, team manager Hussain Al Fardan and other administrative and support staff.

Meanwhile, Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) vice-president His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa paid a visit to the junior national team at one of their local training sessions this week.

HH Shaikh Isa was accompanied by BOC secretary general Faris Al Kooheji and a number of BOC and BHA officials.

HH Shaikh Isa gave words of encouragement to the team’s up-and-coming young players and wished them the best in the tournament.

The junior nationals are in Group F for the worlds, alongside Sweden, Slovenia and Greenland.

There are 32 teams in all competing, divided into eight pools of four for the preliminary round.

Group A features France, Poland, Croatia and the US. Group B comprises Algeria, Germany, Tunisia and Libya.

Group C consists of Portugal, Brazil, Kuwait and Costa Rica; while Group D includes Spain, Faroe Islands, Japan and Angola.

Group E features Hungary, Denmark, Argentina and Norway; while Group G comprises Serbia, Morocco, Chile and Iceland.

The field is completed by Egypt, Greece, Cuba and Saudi Arabia in Group H. At the end of a single round-robin in the preliminary stage, the top two teams from each group move on to the tournament’s main round.

This year’s event will be only the third time Bahrain’s juniors are competing.

They previously also took part in the 1995 and 2019 editions, both times finishing 17th overall.