Bahrain set for handball battles

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Kingdom of Bahrain is getting all set to host the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship, which gets underway on Thursday.

The prestigious competition, organised by the Bahrain Handball Association (BHA) in cooperation with the Asian Handball Federation, continues until 25 January.

Sixteen of the continent’s top handball nations are taking part in the event, which also acts as a qualifier for 2025 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship.

The top five senior men’s national teams secure berths in next year’s worlds, to be held in Croatia, Denmark, and Norway.

Bahrain is hosting the continental competition for the fourth time in its history.

It previously also staged the event in 2016, 2014 and 1993.

The championship’s preliminary round will be held until Tuesday next week.

The field has been divided into four groups for this stage, at the end of which the top two from each move on to the main round and stay in contention for the coveted title.

The bottom two squads will compete for the Martyr Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah Cup.

Bahrain are in Group D for the preliminaries along with Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and the UAE. Group A features defending champions Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Chinese Taipei.

Group B includes Iran, South Korea, China and New Zealand; and Group C is composed of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, India and Japan.

The participating national teams have already begun arriving in the Kingdom ahead of the event.

Among the first to arrive were New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Inspection visit

The BHA is also completing its final preparations for the start of action.

General Sports Authority CEO Dr Abdulrahman Askar recently made an inspection visit to the playing venue at Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.

BHA president and Bahrain Olympic Committee board member Ali Issa also checked the site.

Four matches each day are set to be held in the preliminary round.

The first game on each day is scheduled for a 1pm start, with the last fixture beginning at 7pm.

The ensuing round will be held from 18 to 21 January, after which the semi-finals will be held on 23 January.

The gold and bronze medal games will take place on 25 January.

Final classification contests are also scheduled for the 22nd and 23rd. Bahrain have been training for the tournament for the past several weeks under the supervision of head coach Aron Kristjansson.

They recently took part in an international friendly competition in Nantes, France, where they faced their counterparts from Brazil and Tunisia.

Kristjansson had a 22-player squad in Nantes that included Mohammed Abdulhussain, Mohammed Mirza, Ali Mirza, Mohammed Habib Ahmed, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, Ali Eid, Hassan Shahab, Hassan Al Samaheeji, Mohammed Hameed, Hesham Issa, Qassim Qambar, Mohammed Abdulredha, Ahmed Redha, Ahmed Jalal, Abdulla Al Zaimour, Hassan Madan, Ahmed Almaqabi, Adel Mohammed, Hassan Mirza, Jassim Khamis and Ali Al Ashiri.

Inspirational captain and international star Hussain Al Sayyad, who did not join the team in France, is expected to be a part of the final squad list for the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship.