Bahrain ready to ‘give our best’

TDT | Manama              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain are upbeat as they get ready to take on the best players from across the globe in the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship 2023, which gets underway today in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom’s junior national volleyball team kick off their tournament campaign this evening against Tunisia in an exciting fixture scheduled for an 8pm start.

The event 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.

The Bahrainis and Tunisians are in Pool A for the preliminaries 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.

Speaking ahead of the start of play, national team head coach Saber Abdulwahed says that the hosts are ready and they are looking forward to enjoying the experience and to giving their best effort.

“This is a very hard competition—it is the strongest in the world at this level,” he said. “We don’t have any stress, we have prepared our team well and we are at a good level; we are going to do our best.”

The Bahrainis have been training for the worlds over the past few months and had a weeks-long overseas training camp in Slovenia, where they played a number of international friendly matches.

Abdulwahed said that the team’s main goal is to make it past the preliminaries and advance to the elite eight, which would equal their best-ever finish in the tournament of eighth from 2019, when the competition was also held in the Kingdom.

“Our main goal is to go to the second round; that would be a great achievement,” Abdulwaed explained. Abdulwahed is calling on Bahrain’s volleyball fans to turn up for all their matches and help provide a boost for the squad.

“We are playing in Bahrain, in our home,” he said. “We are in a good condition—the lights, the colours, the impression with everything. This will benefit the team. “People in Bahrain love volleyball, they always support our national team. We are waiting for them to come and encourage our players to give their best.”

Bahrain’s squad includes 12 players, namely Hassan Al Warqa, Ali Abdulwahab, Hussain Ehsan, Sayed Hashem Isa, Hassan Alaiwi, Sadeq Marhoon, Ali Al Arab, Hussain Abdulredha, Ali Al Bosta, Sayed Ahmed Murtadha, Abbas Ehsan and Mohammed Hassan.

Matches in the tournament are being held between two halls at Isa Sports City in Riffa. In court A today, 2017 champions Poland square off with India at 11am to get things going. Canada then battle Bulgaria at 2pm, followed by Thailand going up against 2019 winners Iran. That will set the stage for Bahrain’s opening clash with Tunisia at 8pm. Defending champions Italy take on Mexico at 11am in Court B.

That will be followed at 2pm by Egypt facing Brazil, at 5pm by the US taking on Argentina, and then at 8pm by the Czech Republic playing Belgium. All are welcome to attend the games and entrance is free of charge.