BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN’S youth basketball national team take on their counterparts from Oman tonight in their opening game of the U16 Asia Cup Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) Qualifiers 2025, which gets underway in the kingdom.
The tournament features five of the six GCC nations following the last-minute withdrawal of Qatar. The league-type competition acts as a qualifier for this year’s Fiba Asia U16 Championship, to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, this September.
Bahrain’s game against Oman today is scheduled for a 7.30pm kick-off. It will be preceded by the UAE taking on Kuwait at 5pm.
Two games a day will be held over the tournament’s five game days, which continue until Saturday. Thursday will be a rest day.
All fixtures are to be held at the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) Arena in Umm Al Hassam. Entrance for all fans throughout the tournament will be free of charge.
Bahrain’s youth squad completed their final preparations yesterday under Tunisian head coach Racem Marzougui.
BBA president Alaa Mudara visited the team during a practice and he gave words of encouragement to the players and national team staff.
Bahrain finished third in the previous edition of the Gulf U16 event, which was held in 2023 in Jeddah in Saudi. They did not earn a berth in the Fiba Asia U16 Championship with their ranking, but eventually received a qualifying ticket to participate after receiving a letter of invitation from Fiba Asia.
The nationals went on to mark their fifth appearance in the 16-nation continental tournament, which was held in Doha, although they bowed out in the group stage after losing all three of their games.
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