HANDBALL – Bahrain’s under-19 handball national team have stepped up their preparations for the upcoming 11th IHF Men’s Youth World Championship.
The tournament is set to be held from Wednesday next week until August 17 in Egypt. Games are to be played across four venues in Cairo and in the New Administrative Capital.
The Bahrainis are one of 32 national squads from five confederations who will be competing in the prestigious event, organised and run by the International Handball Federation (IHF), the sport’s worldwide governing body.
The kingdom’s representatives secured their berth after finishing fifth in the 10th Asian Men’s Youth Handball Championship, held last year in Amman, Jordan. They are joining reigning continental champions Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia as the teams from Asia in this year’s worlds.
The field in Egypt has been divided into eight groups for the preliminary round. Bahrain are in a tough Group G, where they will be facing some familiar foes in the Japanese and South Koreans. They are also joined by the host Egyptians, who are reigning African champions.
Group A features Sweden, Portugal, Kuwait, and Austria; Group B is composed of Hungary, Switzerland, Morocco, and Kosovo; Group C comprises Serbia, Spain, Croatia, and Algeria; Group D includes Iceland, Brazil, Guinea, and Saudi; Group E features Germany, Slovenia, Uruguay, and Faroe Islands; Group F is composed of Norway, France, Argentina, and Mexico; and Group H comprises Denmark, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, and the US.
The top two from each of the eight pools will make it through to the worlds’ main round, while the pair of lower ranked sides from each will compete in the lower-tier President’s Cup, which will determine 17th to 32nd on the tournament’s final rankings.
Bahrain begin their tournament campaign against Japan on opening day on Wednesday at 5.15pm. They then take on the hosts on Thursday at 7.30pm, before completing the preliminaries on Friday against South Korea at 5.15pm. All times are Bahrain.
The nationals have been training for the tournament the past several weeks and have now intensified their programme in the final lead-up to the worlds. They recently also played a friendly game against their Saudi counterparts away.
Bahrain are competing for the sixth time in the history of the competition. They made their debut as hosts in the 2007 edition, and then also played in 2011 in Argentina. They have then made it to the event in its last three editions in 2017 in Georgia, 2019 in North Macedonia, and in 2023 in Croatia.
Their best finish in the tournament was at home in 2007, when only 16 nations participated. Then, they made it to the eight-team main round, and then lost to Spain in their concluding classification contest for seventh overall.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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