Bahrain eye Olympic berth

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain have begun their preparations for their Asian Men’s Qualification tournament for a place at the Olympic Games in Paris next year.

The qualifiers are scheduled to be held from Wednesday next week to 28 October in Doha, with the participation of 11 countries vying for just one coveted spot in the men’s handball tournament at the Olympics.

The Kingdom’s senior national team are in Group B for the qualifying competition’s preliminary round along with Iran, Kuwait, Japan and Kazakhstan.

Group A features Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the UAE, India and China.

Bahrain won the previous edition of the continental qualification tournament and made history with their first-ever appearance at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

It was also the first time in the history of Bahrain that the Kingdom qualified for any team sport at the Olympics.

At next year’s Paris Olympiad, there will be 12 teams participating.

France are in the fray as the host nation, as are reigning world champions Denmark.

Four spots will then be earned from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia; and then the final six will be won in the 2024 IHF Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments, set to be held in March of next year.

The runners-up from the Doha qualifiers will get to compete in one of the three Olympic qualifying events, which will feature 12 nations in all.

Bahrain’s national handball squad have begun their final lead-up to the Asian qualifiers under head coach Aron Kristjansson, who just earlier this month helped guide the Kingdom’s side to the silver medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The same team that competed in the Asiad are currently in the team’s roster, plus five new call-ups.

The Bahrainis will be spearheaded by skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, who is joined by star goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain, Ali Eid, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Mohammed Habib Ahmed, Ali Mirza, Mohammed Mirza, Ahmed Fadhel, Qassim Qambar, Hassan Madan, Mohammed Hameed Rabia, Hasan Mirza, Mahdi Saad, Mohammed Ali Abdulredha, Hesham Issa and Hassam Al Samaheeji.

The five additions, announced yesterday by the Bahrain Handball Association, are Hassan Shehab, Mujtaba Zaimour, Muntadher Ebrahim, Jassim Khamis and Ahmed Redha.

Bahrain begin their campaign in Doha against Kazakhstan on the opening day of action.

They then face off with Japan on Thursday next week, after which there will be a rest day.

The Bahrainis only return to action on 22 October against Kuwait, and then after another rest day, they complete their preliminary round campaign against Iran on 24 October.

Following the single round-robin, only the top two teams from the two groups advance to the semi-finals, which are scheduled for 26 October. The final and game for third place will then be held on 28 October.