BASKETBALL – Bahrain’s youth men’s basketball national team will be participating in one of the most prestigious under-18 competitions in Europe this April.
The Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) announced yesterday that the kingdom’s brightest young stars will be competing in the 31st edition of the Albert Schweitzer Tournament, to be held in the cities of Mannheim and Viernheim in Germany from April 4 to 11.
Bahrain will be amongst a 12-nation field featuring some of the world’s biggest basketball countries, including Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, Latvia, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, China, New Zealand, Japan, and hosts Germany.
The youth men’s national team’s participation follows an official invitation received by the BBA from their German counterparts Deutscher Basketball Bund (DBB).
The invite reflects the growing status of Bahraini basketball internationally and the BBA’s keenness to provide the best opportunities for technical interaction for the kingdom’s rising players in front of advanced basketball schools worldwide.
The Bahrainis will also be using the competition to gear up for their campaign in the Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) qualifiers for the Fiba U18 Asia Cup 2026.
The Albert Schweitzer Tournament is to be held under the supervision of the DBB, and with the regulations of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba).
Bahrain are set to compete in Group A of the preliminary round alongside Germany, Sweden, Slovenia, Japan, and Türkiye.
Group B is composed of China, Brazil, New Zealand, Latvia, Serbia, and Italy.
Bahrain open their campaign against the host Germans on April 4, before taking on the Swedes the following day.
They play their third game against Slovenia on April 6, and then after a rest day the next day, take on Japan on April 8.
Their final game of the preliminary stage will be against their Turkish counterparts.
Following group play, the top two teams from each pool move on to the semi-finals, to be held on April 10.
The gold and bronze medal games are then set for the tournament’s concluding day on April 11.
Classification contests to rank fifth through 12th will also be held on the event’s last two days.
In Germany, Bahrain are expected to field a number of their best young players who were part of the title-winning squads in last year’s Fiba U16 Asia Cup Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) Qualifiers 2025 as well as the 22nd U16 Arab Basketball Championship for Youth.
The GBA qualifiers for this year’s Fiba U18 Asia Cup 2026 have yet to be scheduled.
The nationals were bronze-medallists from the previous qualification event in 2024, but missed out on a place in the continental showcase.
They will be looking to change that this year and punch their tickets to the Fiba Asia tournament, which is set to be hosted by Doha.
Sixteen teams will make it to the championship, and the nationals will be looking to claim their place for only the seventh time – with their last appearance in the 2018 edition in Thailand.
They made it to the quarter-finals then, when they were led by now-senior men’s national team superstars Muzamil Ameer and Mustafa Hussain.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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