Bahrain aim for Asiad handball gold

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national handball team will begin their bid for the gold medals at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, next month against Kazakhstan in their opening game of the preliminary round.

The schedules for both the Asiad’s men’s and women’s handball tournaments were issued yesterday by the Asian Handball Federation, with matches taking place from 24 September to 5 October.

There are four groups in all in the men’s opening phase, each with three teams, except for Group D, which has four. Bahrain are in Group C along with the Kazakhs and Uzbekistan.

Group A features China, Kuwait and Thailand; Group B comprises Qatar, South Korea and Hong Kong; and Group D includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mongolia and Japan. Bahrain play Kazakhstan in their maiden assignment on opening day and then battle with Uzbekistan only three days later on 27 September.

The top two teams from each pool then move on to the main round, where the eight squads will once again be divided into two pools for another single round-robin from 29 September to 1 October.

That will determine the four semi-finalists, who will clash on 3 October; which will in turn set up the bronze and gold medal games on 5 October.

Hopefuls

The Kingdom’s handball hopefuls are already in intensive preparations for the Asiad under Icelandic head coach Aron Kristjansson.

The nationals are hoping to do better than the previous edition of the Asian Games in 2018 when they came away with the silver medals in the men’s handball tournament. The Bahrainis 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. Men’s handball is one of the 19 sports Bahrain will be taking part in at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The others are athletics, boxing, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, rowing, shooting, cycling, table tennis, taekwondo, sailing, basketball, football, volleyball, E-sports, cricket and equestrian.

The multi-sport Asiad, which is scheduled for 23 September to 8 October, features the continent’s top sportsmen and women participating in 482 events across 40 sports. Meanwhile, the Bahrain Olympic Committee’s (BOC) preparations for the Hangzhou Asiad have continued to step up.

BOC technical director Lounes Madene met with a number of athletes and representatives from the various federations of the sports Bahrain will be competing in.

They discussed the final lists of their respective teams and the importance of having the best elements in the Kingdom’s delegation, with the aim of an honourable participation in order to achieve the finest results. Also as part of the talks, Madene reviewed the recent positive achievements of a number of Bahraini athletes at the 15th Arab Games, held in Algeria last month.