Bahrain eye Asiad handball glory

TDT | Manama              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national handball team have begun their preparations for the Hangzhou Asian Games in China. The multi-sport event is scheduled for September 23 to October 8, featuring the continent’s top sportsmen and women participating in 482 events across 40 sports.

Handball is one of the 13 confirmed sports Bahrain will be taking part in. The others are athletics, boxing, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, rowing, shooting, cycling, table tennis, taekwondo and sailing.

The Bahrain Olympic Committee has yet to announce if Bahrain has confirmed its participation in five more sports, namely basketball, football, volleyball, E-sports and cricket.

The Kingdom’s handball squad have kicked off their training programme for the Asian Games with local sessions at the Bahrain Handball Association arena. It has yet to be confirmed if head coach Aron Kristjansson will be taking the helm of the squad for the event.

Bahrain is hopeful for a record-breaking campaign in China and for exceeding their medal tallies from the last two editions of the Asian Games, in which the Kingdom was ranked 12th overall from around 40 nations on the final medal tally.

Medals

The nationals brought home 19 medals from the 2014 event in Incheon, South Korea, including nine gold, six silver and four bronze; before coming away with 24 medals in 2018 in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia, including 10 gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

Handball is one of the sports they came away with a medal in the 2018 edition in Indonesia. The nationals claimed a silver medal then. They lost to their counterparts from Qatar 27-32 in the final in extra-time.

It was the second medal for Bahrain handball at any Asiad, having claimed bronze in 2014. The Hangzhou Asian Games were originally scheduled to be held in 2022, but was postponed to this year due to concerns related to COVID-19.

Handball was first incorporated into the Asian Games in 1982. The Handball event of the Hangzhou Asian Games will be held in Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre and Zhejiang Normal University Xiaoshan Gymnasium from September 24 to October 5, and the final in Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre, where the athletes will compete for 2 gold medals.