Handball – BAHRAIN’S youth handball national team are relishing the opportunity to compete in front of their home fans in the third Asian Youth Games.
The kingdom’s medal hopefuls begin the Bahrain delegation’s hunt for glory today in this mega multi-sport event, being held under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Hamad.
Boys’ handball is one of the competitions set to begin prior to the Games’ official opening ceremony on Wednesday, and the youth nationals are eager to get onto the handball court at Umm Al Hassam Sports Complex.
They take on Hong Kong in Group A this evening at 7pm. All are welcome to attend and cheer on the teams.
“Our players love that they are playing at home,” national team assistant coach Akbar Abdulaziz Almarzooq told the GDN last night on the sidelines of their final training session at Al Najma Club.
“The Bahraini people all know about handball and they support our national teams. This is a good chance for us to show them what our youth team can do.”
Bahrain and Hong Kong are in Group A along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Maldives; while Group B features Kuwait, Iran, China, the UAE, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.
A line-up of 14 countries instead of 11 was initially set to compete, but three had withdrawn, namely India, Uzbekistan and Qatar.
Following their clash with Hong Kong this evening, the Bahrainis next take on the Maldives tomorrow. They then have a few days’ break before competing in their penultimate preliminary round fixture against Jordan on Saturday, and then off with Saudi on Sunday next week to complete their Group A schedule.
The top two teams from each of the two pools will move on to clash in the semi-finals, scheduled for October 28. The gold and bronze medal games will then take place on October 30.
Almarzooq says that the nationals, who are also guided by Egyptian head coach Mohamed Abdelrahman Soliman, are determined to fight for the gold medal, especially since they are playing at home. Over a decade ago in 2013, Bahrain stepped onto the boys’ handball podium in the second edition of the Asian Youth Games in Nanjing, China, where they took bronze behind gold-medallists Qatar and silver medal winners South Korea.
“We have 16 players who we feel are in good shape and are ready for the challenge in this Asian Youth Games,” Almarzooq stressed. “There are many national teams here who are strong like Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan – all of whom are very good and are at the same level. But we are confident.
“We prepared ourselves well and everything is good with the players. We have been working hard for the past several weeks and over the last few days we have played a number of friendly matches here in Bahrain. It was a good chance to gain more experience together.
“We are confident that we can do well in this tournament.”
In other boys’ handball games today, China take on the UAE at 11am, the Maldives face Saudi at 1pm, Iran play Thailand at 3pm, and Kuwait battle Kazakhstan at 5pm.
Bahrain are competing in all 26 sports in this year’s Asian Youth Games.
In girls’ handball, there are seven teams, namely China, India, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Iran. They are scheduled to begin taking to the court tomorrow.
Speaking ahead of today’s start of action, Bahrain’s Chef de Mission and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) executive director of operations Ahmed Abdulghaffar says that the kingdom’s athletes are ready for an historic and unprecedented participation in the continental event.
Abdulghaffar highlighted the support provided by Supreme Council for Youth and Sports first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and BOC president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa to the kingdom’s aspiring young athletes.
He commended the organisational and technical preparations of Team Bahrain, which highlight the country’s prominent role in Asian sports.
Abdulghaffar expressed optimism about achieving results that reflect Bahrain’s sporting progress, noting that all national teams have completed their preparations for this major event.
He expressed his confidence in the athletes’ readiness to deliver strong performances and achieve results that make Bahrain proud.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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