Bahrain in full strength mode for Asiad

TDT | Manama              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain will be competing in 19 sports at the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games in China. This was confirmed by officials from the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC).

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.

Last May, the BOC announced that there were 13 sports confirmed in which Bahrain’s athletes will be vying for gold, and said that another five were pending approval.

The original 13 sports were athletics, handball, boxing, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, rowing, shooting, cycling, table tennis, taekwondo and sailing.

The officials have now confirmed that the Kingdom’s teams will be participating in basketball, football, volleyball, E-sports and cricket—the five sports that were originally awaiting approval.

Bahrain have now also added equestrian to this list, bringing the total number to 19. The Kingdom’s athletes in all the aforementioned sports have already begun their preparations for the Asiad.

This year’s event will mark the 13th Asian Games Bahrain will be taking part in. Bahraini sportsmen and women had also participated in 1974 in Tehran, in 1978 in Bangkok, in 1982 in New Delhi, in 1986 in Seoul, in 1990 in Beijing, in 1994 in Hiroshima, in 1998 in Bangkok, in 2002 in Busan, in 2006 in Doha, in 2010 in Guangzhou, in 2014 in Incheon and in 2018 in Jakarta/Palembang.

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 table.

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.

In this year’s Asiad, during the 15 days of competition, athletes will be battling for 483 gold medals. The events will take place in 54 competition venues across six cities: Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua.

Bahrain’s Chef de Mission to the Hangzhou Asian Games will be Ahmed Abdulghaffar. 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.