VOLLEYBALL – BAHRAIN have stepped up their preparations for the sixth AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup, which will be hosted by the kingdom from Tuesday next week until June 24.
Bahrain will be one of 12 senior men’s national teams competing for top honours in the event, which is being organised by the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) in cooperation with the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and Volleyball World.
It is to be held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and it is the second straight year that the kingdom is staging the competition.
Hosting the meeting is in line with the vision of His Majesty King Hamad’s representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs and SCYS chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and it reflects the directives of Shaikh Khalid to enhance Bahrain’s presence on the international sporting stage.
Bahrain are in Pool A for the tournament’s opening round along with Thailand and Indonesia.
Pool B features defending champions Qatar, Australia, and Kazakhstan; Pool C is composed of last year’s silver-medallists Pakistan, Chinese-Taipei, and the Philippines; and Pool D includes the 2024 bronze-medallists South Korea, Vietnam, and New Zealand.
The nationals have been gearing up for play with an overseas training camp in Cairo, Egypt, supervised by newly signed French head coach Arnaud Josserand, who has taken over for departed Argentinian tactician Jorge Elgueta.
Josserand has 16 players in the camp. They include Mahmood Alafyah, Hussain Mansoor, Mohammed Anan, Ali Ebrahim, Ebrahim Mohammed, Mohammed Yaqoob, Naser Anan, Sayed Hashem Issa, Mahmood Abdulwahed, Ahmed Sadeq, Mahmood Abdulhussain, Mohammed Omar, Hani Alawi, Hassan Al Warqaa, Ayman Harwana, and Abbas Sultan.
The Bahrainis played a friendly game against their Egyptian counterparts last week and are scheduled to take to the court once again tomorrow against the African volleyball giants.
Games in the AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup are set to be held at Isa Bin Rashid Arena, located at Isa Sports City in Riffa. Four fixtures are scheduled for each day of play, starting from 11.30am and the last beginning no earlier than 7pm.
Teams will first compete in round-robin pool play, with the top two from each pool advancing to the quarter-finals. The remaining sides will compete in classification matches for ninth to 12th places.
The winners of the competition will earn a berth in the 2026 Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship.
The hosts Bahrainis finished seventh overall in last year’s competition, when Qatar secured the gold medals after sweeping past their Pakistani counterparts in three sets in the final.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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