Junior spikers in final preparations for volleyball worlds

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’s junior national volleyball team have entered their final preparations for the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship 2023, which gets underway Friday.

The Bahrainis are amongst 16 of the top junior volleyball squads from across the globe taking part in the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) event, which is being held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy president, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee chief His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Bahrain have been training daily under head coach Saber Abdulwahed as they gear up for their opening game against Tunisia on opening night.

Eight matches a day are to be held between two arenas at Isa Sports City in Riffa until July 16. All are welcome to attend and watch the games and entrance is free of charge for the fans.

The Bahrainis and Tunisians are in Pool A along with Iran and Thailand.

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. Following their head-to-head with Tunisia, the Bahrainis then face off against Thailand Saturday evening.

The nationals then complete their preliminary round campaign against Iran on Sunday.

Members of the tournament’s control committee have begun arriving.

It is headed by FIVB executive vice-president Hugh Graham, who was received upon reaching Bahrain International Airport by the competition’s operations director Habib Mohammed and housing committee head Abdulreza Ashouri.

Other officials and the participating national teams have also begun arriving and will continue to do so today.

At the end of the preliminary round, the top two teams from each pool will advance to 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 ninth to 16th.

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

On each day, the first fixtures are scheduled for 11am starts, with the last games set to begin no earlier than 8pm.