VOLLEYBALL – BAHRAIN will be facing off with Lebanon in their opening match of the first WAVA Men’s Volleyball Championship 2025, set to be hosted by the kingdom this month.
The West Asia Volleyball Association (WAVA) event is scheduled for July 17 to 27.
The competition is being organised by the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) in co-operation with WAVA, headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Tournament officials have released the schedule of matches for the preliminary phase, which will be held across three match days with four games per day.
The championship is bringing together eight of the region’s volleyball juggernauts, who have been divided into two groups for this opening stage.
The Bahrainis and Lebanese are in Group A along with the UAE and Jordan, while Group B is composed of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait.
Bahrain’s clash with Lebanon is set for the first day of play on July 19. Each day of the preliminaries will begin from 1pm onwards, with the last matches starting no earlier than 7pm.
The hosts take on Jordan in their second assignment on July 20 before wrapping up their group schedule against their Emirati counterparts the following night.
All three of the Bahrainis’ outings are to be the last games of each day. The knockout phase will follow, leading up to the final classification contests and gold and bronze medal battles.
Matches are to be played at Isa bin Rashid Arena, located at Isa Sports City in Riffa.
The nationals were scheduled to begin their preparations yesterday at the tournament venue under the supervision of their French head coach and former Olympian Arnaud Josserand.
Their participation in the WAVA event comes less than a month after securing an historic crown in the AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup 2025, also hosted by the kingdom last month. Eleven senior men’s squads from across the continent took part in that competition, in which Bahrain made history by claiming their first-ever title in an Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) event.
It was the second major achievement for the kingdom’s spikers in less than a year, as they had also bagged the title in the 23rd Arab Men’s Volleyball Championship, held in Bahrain last November.
The AVC Men’s Volleyball Nations Cup was Bahrain’s first tournament with Josserand in charge. He had taken over for Argentinian tactician Jorge Elgueta – another ex-Olympian – who had guided the nationals to their Arab title.
It is expected that Bahrain will field a national team roster in the WAVA championship that is similar to the one that competed in the AVC event, with many of their top players returning including Mohammed Yaqoob, Ali Ebrahim, Naser Anan, Mohammed Anan, Mahmood Alafyah, and Ayman Harwana, among others.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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