Bahrain youth set for Egypt friendlies

TDT | Manama                                                               

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-19 national handball team will be playing a series of friendly matches against their counterparts from Egypt over the coming week, in preparation for the 10th IHF Men’s Youth Handball World Championship.

The global tournament is scheduled to be held August 2 to 13 in Croatia, with 32 national teams taking part. The tune-up games will provide a good test for the Kingdom’s youngsters, as they will be facing the defending world youth champions.

The Egyptians are scheduled to arrive in the Kingdom this evening from Cairo. The friendlies are set to be played tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. The Bahrainis are coached by Icelandic tactician Maksim Akbachev, and they have been training over the past weeks for the worlds.

The event will be the first edition of the youth handball worlds to feature a 32-team field. It will also be the first edition of the competition since 2019, as the one scheduled in 2021 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are eight groups of four teams each for the preliminary round. The Bahrainis are in Group D with Spain, Korea and Brazil. The nationals qualified for the worlds after placing fifth in the ninth Asian Men’s Youth Handball Championship, which was hosted by Bahrain last year.

The upcoming tournament will be the fifth time the Kingdom’s flag will be flown at the event. The Bahrainis also played in the 2007, 2011, 2017 and 2019 editions. Their best finish was eighth in 2007, when the competition took place in Bahrain.