Bahrain’s Asiad rosters take shape

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

As the days continue to count down to the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, Bahrain’s full delegation of competing athletes continues to take shape.

The Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) has announced the names of a number of the men and women athletes who will be going for gold at the highly anticipated, multi-sport Asiad.

The nationals will now only be competing in 17 sports instead of 18, following the withdrawal of Bahrain from the men’s cricket competition.

They are athletics, handball, football, basketball, volleyball, boxing, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, rowing, shooting, cycling, table tennis, taekwondo, sailing, and e-sports.

Bahrain will be sending its largest-ever contingent to the Hangzhou event, with more than 200 athletes and officials flying the Kingdom’s flag.

Many of the Kingdom’s sportsmen and women have past experience in the Asian Games or have competed in other major events such as the Olympics, or in world and continental championships of their respective sports.

Bahrain’s delegation to Hangzhou is headed by BOC vice-president His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, while Ahmed Abdulghaffar is the Chef de Mission.

Amongst the team sports, Bahrain will be represented by 22 players in football, 16 in handball, and 12 each in basketball and volleyball.

The rest are individual sports, four of which will feature both men and women athletes, namely athletics, rowing, shooting and table tennis.

The athletics team makes up the largest squad for Bahrain with 34 total athletes entered t o compete, including 18 men and 16 women.

There are three athletes in rowing, including two men and one woman; 14 in shooting, including seven men and seven women, and eight in table tennis, featuring four men and four women.

Elsewhere in the delegation, Bahrain will have six men athletes in judo; four in cycling, e-sports and wrestling; three in jiu-jitsu; two apiece in boxing and sailing; and one athlete each in taekwondo and weightlifting. Five of Bahrain’s sports are scheduled to begin this week prior to the official opening ceremony, which is scheduled for Saturday.

Bahrain’s teams in both football and volleyball get their campaigns underway on Tuesday, while the rowing team begin their medal quest on Wednesday and the sailing squad on Thursday. Also, action in table tennis begins on Friday.

This year’s Asiad will mark the 13th Asian Games Bahrain is 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 Hangzhou and for exceeding their medal tallies from the last two editions of the Asian Games.

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.

List of athletes announced by the BOC so far BOXING:

Azat Makhmetov and Danis Latypov

CYCLING: Ahmed Madan, Ahmed Naser, Mansoor Jawad and Sayed Ahmed Alawi

E-SPORTS: Ahmed Abdulaziz Abdulla, Rashed Khaled Al Ruwaihi, Ayman Hassan and Abdulaziz Faqeehi

FOOTBALL: Sayed Mohammed Adnan, Ali Adnan Dhaif, Khalil Ebrahim Ahmed, Hasan Isa Juma, Ali Mohamed Redha, Ahmed Abdulhameed Hasan, Hussain Ali Aleker, Hassan Abdulnabi Ali, Sayed Jawad Alawi, Hani Taha Alharobi, Mahmood Mohamed Ali, Hussain Abdulkarim, Hussain Jaafar Haroona, Abdulla Nemer Almesaeed, Ahmed Dheyaa Ali, Abdulla Ali Alahmed, Abdulla Ali Alsubaiei, Mubarak Mohammed, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Salman Abdulla Qadhaib, Mohammed Abdulqayoom and Salman Adel Al Isa JUDO: Ramazan Kodzhakov, Biaslan Hajali, Askerbii Gerbekov, Sulim Maraev, Zelimkhan Yakub and Azamat Chotchaev

ROWING: Omar Alhasan, Fahad Albanki and Maryam Abdulhameed Husain SAILING: Abdulla Mohammed Janahi and Khalifa Al Dosari

TABLE TENNIS: Rashed Rashed, Alyas Alyassi, Sayed Murtadha Mahfoodh, Salman Abuhamda, Maryam Alaali, Fatima Alaali, Rayan Rashed and Amruta Amit Phadke

TAEKWONDO: Moaz Ebrahim Ahmed

VOLLEYBALL: Mohammed Yaqoob, Nasser Anan, Ali Ebrahim, Ayman Haroona, Mahmood Al Afia, Abbas Sultan, Ali Habib, Abbas Al Khabbaz, Hussain Mahdi, Hussain Ehsan and Sayed Hashem Issa

WEIGHTLIFTING: Gor Minasyan WRESTLING: Alibeg Alibegov, Magomedrasul Asluev, Magomed Sharipov and Akhmed Tazhudinov