BASKETBALL – ARAB youth Most Valuable Player Somto Patrick Onoduenyi spearheads a 14-player Bahrain youth men’s basketball national team that have departed for Germany to compete in the 31st Albert Schweitzer Tournament.
The prestigious under-18 event tips off tomorrow, and it features a high-quality field of 12 of the world’s biggest basketball nations, including Serbia, Slovenia, Türkiye, Latvia, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, China, New Zealand, Japan, and hosts Germany, aside from Bahrain.
The kingdom’s roster that will be hitting the hardwood in the competition was announced yesterday by the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA).
Onoduenyi, who helped lead the nationals to the gold medals at the 22nd U16 Arab Basketball Championship for Youth in Cairo, Egypt as well as at the Fiba U16 Asia Cup Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) Qualifiers 2025 hosted by the kingdom – both of which took place last year – is joined on the squad by a number of Bahrain’s other rising talents.
The rest of the team features Onoduenyi’s frontcourt mate Hassan Abdulqader, Mohammed Farhan, Mohammed Adel, Hussain Madan, Mahdi Habib, Hussain Fouad, Ali Khalil, Ali Ferdowsi, Yousif Yaqoob Meshael, Khalid Mohammed, Ali Hafez, Jock James, and Mujtaba Rayan.
The delegation that travelled to Europe is headed by BBA vice-president Nader Al Awadhi, and it includes senior men’s basketball national team assistant coach and former Manama Club court general Ahmed Abdulaziz along with other officials.
The 31st Albert Schweitzer Tournament will be held in the cities of Mannheim and Viernheim. The kingdom’s youth are participating following an official invitation received by the BBA from their German counterparts at the Deutscher Basketball Bund (DBB).
Bahrain are in Group A for the tournament’s 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 hosts tomorrow at 9pm, and then take on the Swedes the following day at 6.15pm. They play their third game against Slovenia on Monday next week also at 6.15pm, and then after a rest day the next day, face off with Japan on Wednesday at 2.15pm. Their final game of the preliminary stage will be against their Turkish counterparts on Thursday at 2.45pm. All times are Bahrain.
Following group play, the top two teams from each pool will move on to the semi-finals, to be held on Friday next week. The gold and bronze medal games are then set for the event’s concluding day on Saturday.
Classification contests to rank fifth through 12th overall will also be held on the last two days.
Bahrain are playing in Germany as part of their preparations for the GBA qualifiers for the Fiba U18 Asia Cup 2026, which have yet to be scheduled.
The nationals were bronze-medallists from the previous GBA U18 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 the seventh time – with their last appearance in the 2018 edition in Thailand.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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