Bahrain to begin Olympic quest

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national basketball team begin on Saturday their quest to secure an historic berth in the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. The nationals are all set for the first phase in the long road of qualification, which begins with the Asian pre-qualifiers in Damascus, Syria.

The Bahrainis are one of just six teams competing in the event, which is scheduled to continue until 20 August. An original line-up of eight nations was set to vie for the single spot in the Olympic qualifying tournaments, but South Korea and Chinese-Taipei have withdrawn.

That has left Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, hosts Syria, Indonesia and India in the fray. They will play in a single round-robin, and the team at the top of the standings at the end will march through to the next qualification stage.

Bahrain have been preparing over the past several weeks for the Olympic pre-qualifiers under renowned head coach Ricard Casas. They conducted an overseas training camp in Turkey, where they played three international friendly matches against quality competition.

They opened with an 84-80 victory over Saudi but then lost to African giants Cameroon 81-85. They wrapped up their camp with an 87-83 win against Lebanon. Among Bahrain’s top players expected to be in the Olympic pre-qualifiers are Muzamil Ameer, Mustafa Hussain, Ali Hussain, Maitham Jameel, Mohammed Buallay, Ali Jaber, Alwethaq Ali, Ali Shukrallah, Sayed Mohammed Hameed, and Wayne Chism, to name a few.

The Bahrain Basketball Association has yet to release the final team line-up for Damascus. This Asian event is one of five pre-qualifiers from all FIBA confederations. These upcoming games will be the first for Bahrain under Casas, who took over in July.

The Spaniard has decades of experience coaching at the highest levels of basketball. He was an assistant coach of the Barcelona basketball team, and was also head coach of Spain’s under-20 and under-18 teams, among other posts.