BAHRAIN begin their campaign today as underdogs in the 2018 Fiba Under-18 Asian Championship, being held in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
Bahrain are one of 16 national youth teams set to compete in the biennial tournament, which is taking place for the 25th time this year.
The Bahrainis take on New Zealand in their opening game. Both nations are in Group ‘C’ of the competition’s preliminary round, which features four groups of four. The other teams in Bahrain’s group are Australia and hosts Thailand.
Group ‘A’ includes defending champions Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan and Indonesia; Group ‘B’ features China, the Philippines, Lebanon and the UAE; and Group ‘D’ comprises South Korea, Chinese Taipei, India and Syria.
Bahrain are playing in the Asian championship after sweeping the qualifying competition, held for the Gulf Basketball Association sub-zone in Muscat in February earlier this year. The UAE also booked their tickets after finishing as runners-up behind Bahrain.
Following their opening game to day against New Zealand, Bahrain next face off against Australia tomorrow. They are then scheduled to take on the host Thais on Tuesday in their final Group ‘C’ assignment.
At the end of a single round-robin in the preliminaries, only the top team from each group advances directly to the quarter-final stage. Teams ranked two and three will have to play in a single-elimination round for the right to join the last eight.
Preparing
Bahrain have been preparing for the past several weeks for the competition. They are being coached by national team head tactician Salman Ramadhan, who has named 12 players on his tournament roster, including Karim Mohammed, Ali Hussain, Rashid Ahmed, Mazal Amir, Mustafa Hussein, Baqer Isa, Nawaf Nabil, Isa Ahmed, Ahmed Hussain, Ahmed Khalifa, Abdulla Al Kooheji and Ali Jaber.
Bahrain are hoping to finish as one of the top four teams in the tournament, which would earn them the right to represent Fiba Asia in the 2019 Fiba U19 Basketball World Cup.