Bahrain to play for men’s handball gold at Asian Games today

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain are hoping to secure an historic men’s handball gold medal today at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

The Kingdom’s senior national team, aiming for their maiden Asiad crown, will be going up against defending champions Qatar in the tournament final, scheduled for a 2pm start, Bahrain time, at Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre.

The nationals made it through to the title-deciding contest after a thrilling 30-28 win over Japan in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

The Qataris qualified with a 29-24 win over fellow-Gulf side Kuwait.

The gold medal clash is a rematch of the final from the 2018 edition of the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, when the Bahrainis had to settle for silver.

They lost 27-32 in extra-time and came away with their second medal at any Asiad, having previously bagged bronze in 2014 in Incheon, South Korea.

The Bahrainis will be spearheaded by their star players including skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain, Ali Eid, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Mohammed Habib Ahmed, Ali Mirza and Mohammed Mirza.

The rest of the squad includes Ahmed Fadhel, Qassim Qambar, Hassan Madan, Mohammed Hameed Rabia, Hasan Mirza, Mahdi Saad, Mohammed Ali Abdulredha, Hesham Issa and Hassam Al Samaheeji.

Head coach Aron Kristjansson from Iceland will be looking to guide Bahrain to their next major accomplishment, after also being responsible for orchestrating Bahrain’s successes in world championships as well as their historic first-ever Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Games, to name a few.

Also today, the Bahraini quartet of Ahmed Madan, Sayed Ahmed Alawi, Jawad Mansoor and Ahmed Naser will be competing in the men’s road race in cycling.

They are amongst a field of 60 riders representing 19 nations who will be battling it out over a total race distance of 207.7 kilometres. It is scheduled for a 5am start, Bahrain time.

Elsewhere for Bahrain today, Mohammed Yusuf Abdali will get the national delegation’s campaign underway in jiu-jitsu.

He will face off with Michael Bryant Tiu of the Philippines in their round-of-32 contest in the men’s under-69kg category.

Jiu-jitsu is one of the last sports remaining that Bahrain will be competing in over the final days of the Hangzhou Asiad, which concludes on Saturday.

The others are weightlifting and wrestling.

The lone Bahraini in weightlifting is Gor Minasyan, who came away with a superb medal double at the World Weightlifting Championships 2023; while the wrestling team includes Alibeg Alibegov, Magomedrasul Asluev, Magomed Sharipov and Akhmed Tazhudinov, who just last month was crowned world champion in his weight class at the World Wrestling Championships 2023 in Belgrade.