BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN representatives Riffa and Seef are set to compete in the Orleans Challenger, which gets underway today in France as part of the 2025 Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
The meeting will be an historic occasion for the kingdom as it will see Seef’s highly anticipated debut as the first all-Bahraini squad in street basketball’s premier international series.
Riffa will be playing with a quartet that features Jonas Foerts, Vic Van Oosterwyck, Andrej Cuyvers – all of whom are Belgian – and Mohamed Kowayed, who earlier this season made history as the first-ever player from the kingdom to appear on the Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
Seef’s foursome features top local talents Sayed Mohammed Hameed, Sadeq Shukrallah, Hassan Fahad and Nasser Al Mosawi
Riffa and Seef will be part of a 16-team field in the Orleans Challenger’s preliminary round. Riffa are in Pool D along with Carolina of Puerto Rico and a team from the qualifying draw. Seef, meanwhile, are in Pool B with Toulouse of France and Marijampole Mantinga from Lithuania.
Pool A is composed of Ub from Serbia, Podebrady from the Czech Republic, and Bordeaux from France, while Pool C boasts Vienna from Austria, Hangzhou from China, and a second qualifier.
There are six hopefuls in qualification, which comprises two groups. Group A comprises Ermont Senef of France, Milan of Italy, and Zurich Gutzwiller of Switzerland, while Group B features Bucharest Stiinta from Romania, Tbilisi from Georgia, and Elancourt from France.
Riffa open their campaign against the qualifying team in their pool at 6pm, and then face Carolina at 7.45pm. Seef first face Toulouse at 6.50pm, and then play Marijampole Mantinga at 10.20pm. All times are Bahrain.
The top two teams from each pool in the preliminaries move on to tomorrow’s knockout phase, which begins with the quarter-finals. The semi-finals and final will also be held tomorrow night.
The Orleans Challenger acts as a qualifier for the Shenzhen Masters in China, scheduled for October 4 and 5 on this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
Following their French foray this week, Seef are scheduled to compete in their first-ever Masters event in Hong Kong on July 19 and 20.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour hosts meetings in major cities worldwide. Events are of different levels, beginning with lower-tier Quest competitions, and moving up to Challengers and top-tier Masters events.
Several Masters competitions have already taken place this year in Japan, China, the Netherlands, France, Austria and Mongolia. Hong Kong follows, as will events in Edmonton, Canada; Lausanne, Switzerland; Debrecen, Hungary; Shanghai and Shenzhen in China; Macau; and Abu Dhabi, the UAE; before heading to Bahrain for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 finale on November 21 and 22.
Bahrain had also hosted Manama Masters the past two seasons, and this year will be staging the series’ curtain-closer for the first time.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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