Bahrain squad set for handball worlds

TDT | Manama                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain have named their final 19- team roster that will compete in the 10th IHF Men’s Youth Handball World Championship.

The tournament is scheduled to take place August 2 to 13 in Croatia, with 32 national teams from across the globe taking part. The Bahrainis are scheduled to leave for Slovenia today to conduct an overseas training camp leading up to the competition.

The Kingdom’s under-19 nationals are coached by Icelandic tactician Maksim Akbachev. The 19 players on the Bahrain delegation consist of Elias Mohammed and Qassem Hussain from Al Etihad; Ali Al Madani and Mohammed Al Marzouq from Al Ettifaq; Talal Al Zuwaid, Sayed Al Musawi and Ali Abdulkarim from Al Najma; Sayed Hussain Al Muhafaza, Salman Al Shuwaikh, Mohammed Ayad, Abdulla Samir and Mahmoud Al Johar from Barbar; Sayed Mahmoud Al Falahi and Sayed Mohammed Al Falahi from Tubli; Jaafar Abdulshaheed and Ahmed Taleb from Tadhamun; Ali Abdulredha and Mohammed Yousef from Al Shabab; and Abbas Hussain from Samaheej.

The final list was announced yesterday by the Bahrain Handball Association. At their camp, they will play three international friendly matches against their counterparts from Japan, Chile and the host Slovenians. The Bahrainis have been training locally over the past several weeks under Akbachev.

They also played a number of tune-ups against their counterparts from Egypt, who were the champions of the event’s previous edition held in 2019. This year’s youth handball worlds will be its first edition to feature a 32- team field.

It will also mark the return of the competition 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 top two move on to the main round, while the bottom pair will play for the President’s Cup in the lower-tier bracket. The Bahrainis are in Group D with South Korea, Spain and Brazil. The nationals open their campaign against the Koreans on day one, and then face off with the Spaniards the following day.

After a rest day, they complete their group stage with their match against the Brazilians. 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.