BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN’S women’s and men’s 3x3 basketball national teams have begun their preparations for their respective competitions in the Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup 2026.
The tournament is scheduled to be held from next Wednesday to April 5 in Singapore, with the Bahrainis amongst 22 women’s squads and 24 men’s outfits taking part.
Set to hit the half-court for the girls in the tournament are Bayan Salman, Shereen Abdulrahman, Noor Najaf, and Nouf Abdulla; while for the men, a preliminary roster of Alwatheq Ali, Nasser Al Mosawi, Isa Jassim, Mohammed Ghazwan, and Salman Al Kaabi has begun their preparations.
“I’m really excited for the upcoming Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup,” Salman told the GDN. “It’s a big opportunity for us as a team to represent our country and showcase our growth.
“Our preparations have been going really well; we’ve been training consistently all year round, which has helped us build strong chemistry, improve our fitness, and really understand the game on a deeper level.
“We’ve definitely grown and improved from the last time we competed thanks to our coaches Bogdan Dragovic and Murtadha Kamali.”
Bahrain’s women will first need to take part in the qualifying draw at this year’s Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup, which features 14 national teams, who have been divided into four pools. Only the winners of each will move on to play in the tournament proper.
The Bahrainis are in qualifying draw C along with Chinese Taipei, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong. Draw A features Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and South Korea; draw B is composed of Malaysia, Turkmenistan, and India; and draw D consists of Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Macau, and Maldives.
Already in the main draw are China and Thailand in Pool A, Mongolia and New Zealand in Pool B, Japan and Singapore in Pool C, and three-time defending champions Australia and the Philippines are in Pool D.
“We’re going into the tournament with a competitive mindset,” said Salman, who was also part of the kingdom’s women’s team who competed in the same stage of last year’s Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup. “We want to represent Bahrain in the best way possible, compete at a high level, and push ourselves to achieve better results than before and hopefully qualify to the next stage.
“We now have more experience, a better understanding of the level, and more confidence as a group.
“The whole team is really excited, and we’re ready to give it everything we have.”
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s men will be one of 16 national teams competing in their qualification phase, where they have been placed in draw D along with Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and India. Draw A features the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and the Maldives; draw B is composed of Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Macau; and draw C includes Iran, Tonga, South Korea, and Vietnam.
Like the women, only the winners from each qualifying draw will punch their tickets to the main event, where there are already eight nations confirmed. Mongolia and Chinese Taipei are in Pool A, China and defending back-to-back champions Australia are in Pool B, Japan and Singapore are in Pool C, and New Zealand and Qatar are in Pool D.
Both Bahrain’s women and men will play all their qualifying games on Wednesday.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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