VOLLEYBALL – BAHRAIN have named their final 14-man roster that will be flying the kingdom’s flag at home in the sixth AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup 2025.
The Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) confirmed the squad that will be going for glory in the prestigious continental tournament, which is bringing together 11 top senior men’s national teams for plenty of exciting action.
The Bahrainis are to be led by top stars Mohammed Yaqoob, Naser Anan, Ali Ebrahim, Mahmood Alafyah, and Ayman Harwana, while the rest of the team includes Abbas Al Khabbaz, Hussain Mansoor, Sayed Hashem Isa, Mahmoud Abdulwahed, Mohammed Jassim, Mohammed Anan, Hasan Al Warqaa, Hani Ali, and Abbas Sultan.
They are coached by French tactician Arnaud Josserand and his technical staff, who have intensified their preparations over the past several weeks.
This year’s AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup is scheduled to get underway tomorrow. It is being organised by the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) in cooperation with the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and Volleyball World.
It is being held for the second straight year in the kingdom under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Bahrain continue to gear up for the event with training sessions twice a day under Josserand’s supervision – once in the morning and again in the evening. They are focused on improving their technical readiness after the team successfully conducted an overseas training camp in Cairo, Egypt, this month which followed the completion of the 2024-25 national season.
Meanwhile, a joint-meeting between the executive committee and the control committee was held yesterday to discuss details of the championship.
Members of the control committee also made inspection visits across the tournament venue and to the local clubs that will host national teams’ training, as well as other facilities.
Bahrain’s participation in the AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup follows their historic title triumph in the 23rd Arab Men’s Volleyball Championship, held in the kingdom in November of last year. That success has given them a huge morale boost and stronger ambition to add a continental achievement in this AVC tournament.
The Bahrainis clinched their Arab title under the guidance of the now-departed Jorge Elgueta, who Josserand has taken over for.
Bahrain are in Pool A for the competition’s opening round along with Thailand and Indonesia. Pool B features defending champions Qatar and Australia following the late withdrawal of Kazakhstan. Pool C is composed of last year’s silver-medallists Pakistan, Chinese Taipei, and the Philippines; while Pool D includes the 2024 bronze-medallists South Korea, Vietnam, and New Zealand.
Matches in the preliminaries are scheduled to start from 2pm tomorrow and Wednesday, with three games apiece on both days; while Thursday’s four-fixture schedule will begin from 11.30am. The last matches of each day will start no earlier than 7pm. Entrance for all games is free of charge.
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 place.
The winners of the competition will earn a berth in the 2026 Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship.
The host 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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