Bahrain squad set for Asian volleyball

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain have named a fullstrength 14-player national team that will compete in next week’s 22nd Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship.

The tournament is to be held in Urmia, Iran, from Saturday, and the Bahrainis are one of 18 national teams taking part.

The Kingdom’s squad, coached by Ruben Adrian Wolochin from Argentina, remains largely the same from the team that claimed the silver medals last month in the fourth AVC Men Challenger in Chinese Taipei—a tournament where they stunned international powerhouses such as Australia and South Korea en route to the gold medal game, where they lost to Thailand.

Eleven of the players who competed in that event will be flying the Kingdom’s flag in this top-tier continental competition.

They include top stars Mohammed Yaqoob, Ali Ebrahim, Ayman Haroona, Mahmood Al Afia, Ali Habib, Nasser Anan, Mahmood Abdul hussain , Mahmoud Abdulwahed, Abbas Al Khabbaz, Mohammed Jassim and Hani Ali.

They will be joined by talented youngster Sayed Hashem Isa and national team mainstays Hussain Sultan and Mohammed Anan, both of whom are coming off recent injuries.

Among those who were not on the final list but were in contention included Ebrahim Mohammed, Abbas Sultan, Mohammed Omar, Hussain Ehsan and Sayed Ahmed Murtadha.

Awards

Yaqoob, Ebrahim and Haroona were among the eight winners of individual awards at this year’s AVC Men Challenger.

Yaqoob took home the Best Outside Hitter award, while Ebrahim was named the Best Opposite Spiker.

Haroona was honoured as the tournament’s Best Libero.

In the upcoming Asian championship, the 18-nation field has been divided into six pools of three teams apiece for the preliminary round.

Bahrain are in Pool D with Chinese Taipei and Mongolia.

Two-time champions Iran are in Pool A with Hong Kong and Iraq; while Japan, Uzbekistan and Thailand are in Pool B.

Pool C consists of China, Kazakhstan and Indonesia; while Qatar, India and Afghanistan are in Pool E. Pool F rounds out the teams with Pakistan, South Korea and Bangladesh.

Bahrain open their tournament campaign against Chinese Taipei on Sunday next week, and then face off with their Mongolian counterparts the next day.

At the end of the group stage, the first and second teams of each group—making 12 teams in total—will advance to the playoff stage, where the top teams will face the second teams of each group by drawing lots. Bahrain will be looking to continue from their fine performance in last month’s AVC Men Challenger.

By playing in the gold medal game of that tournament, the Bahrainis made national sporting history after qualifying for their first-ever championship-decider at the senior men’s level in any Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) tournament.

It was thus their maiden silver medal in a continental competition for senior men. Bahrain have never won a medal in the Asian men’s championship.

This year’s tournament marks their 11th appearance, with their best finish coming in 1987 when they were eighth amongst 17 teams.