HANDBALL – Bahrain's senior men’s handball national team face off with their counterparts from Iraq in their opening preliminary round fixture of the Arab Handball Cup 2025, taking place in Kuwait City next month.
The tournament is scheduled for May 5 to 11 and it will feature nine of the Arab world’s top handball men’s teams.
The Bahrainis and Iraqis are in group A along with African powerhouses Egypt.
The nationals’ clash with Iraq will be on the championship’s opening day, scheduled for a 3pm start. They then take on their Egyptian rivals on May 7 at 5pm. Both times are Bahrain.
Group B for the competition’s first phase is composed of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia; while Group C features hosts Kuwait, the UAE, and Morocco.
Following a single round-robin, each of the three group winners will move on to the semi-finals, where they will be joined by the best second-placed team. Bahrain will be competing in this year’s Arab Handball Cup coached by recently signed Serbian tactician Predrag Petljanski, who has kicked off training with the national team at the Bahrain Handball Federation Arena in Umm Al Hassam.
This year’s tournament is the 10th edition of the event, which has been revived after a long hiatus, having been last held more than 20 years ago in 2002, when Bahrain won the title for the first and only time.
The event also acts as a preparatory tournament for the participating continental sides who will be battling it out in the 22nd Asian Men’s Handball Championship, which is slated for January and February next year.
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