ASIAN BEACH GAMES – BAHRAIN’S national teams are set to face some tough competition in their respective sports at the upcoming sixth Asian Beach Games, taking place from Wednesday next week until April 30 in Sanya, China.
Twenty men’s athletes will be flying the kingdom’s flag in four of the event’s 14 sports, including 3x3 basketball, beach handball, beach wrestling, and open water swimming.
The Bahrainis are amongst 45 delegations from across the continent who will be competing in the highly anticipated Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) meeting.
The team is headed by chef de mission and BOC executive director of operations Ahmed Abdulghaffar, along with deputy chef de mission and BOC Arab and international relations head Maryam Mardana.
A number of the kingdom’s athletes and members of the administrative team have already departed for Sanya from Bahrain. They transited through Doha, Qatar, in their travel to the Far East.
In 3x3 basketball, Bahrain are hitting the half-court with the quartet of Bogdan Dragovic, Milos Supica, Nasser Al Mosawi, and Austin Ajukwa.
They are one of 16 teams in their competition, and will be going up against Qatar, India, and Kazakhstan in the preliminary round. They play the Qataris and Indians on April 25, and then face their Kazakh counterparts on April 27.
They will be hoping to finish amongst the top two in their pool to advance to the quarter-finals, set for April 28. The semi-finals and the medal matches are then slated for the following day.
The other participating nations in 3x3 basketball are China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
In beach handball, Bahrain’s national team is composed of 10 players, including Bilal Basham, Adam Isa Alnasheet, Ali Alhayki, Mahdi Ali, Ali Almawlani, Sayed Ahmed Faiq, Kamil Ali, Komail Mahfoudh, and goalkeepers Abdulla Alzaimour and Ali Ghassan.
They will be playing six games in their opening phase – against China and India on Tuesday next week, the Philippines the following day, Sri Lanka on April 24, Iran on April 26, and Hong Kong on April 27.
The semis are set for April 28, with the final on April 30.
In beach wrestling, the kingdom will be represented by the quartet of world bronze-medallist and silver-medallist from last weekend’s Asian championship Shamil Sharipov in the men’s 90kg weight class, world under-23 bronze-medallist and Asian silver-medallist Magomed Sharipov in the men’s 90kg category, Asian silver-medallist Magomedrasul Asluev in the men’s 80kg division, and world under-20 and Asian bronze-medallist Alibeg Alibegov in the men’s 70kg class.
The first two rounds of their competition categories will be held on April 28, followed by the closing stages the next day.
Meanwhile, Bahrain have a pair of medal hopefuls in open water swimming, which is one of two disciplines under the sport of aquatics, with the other being water polo.
The kingdom’s tandem are Robert Bonsall and William Balzano. Their event is the men’s five kilometres.
Aside from the four sports Bahrain are taking part in, also set to be held in the sixth Asian Beach Games are beach soccer, beach kabaddi, beach athletics, dragon boat, jiu-jitsu, sailing, speed sports climbing, teqball, aquathlon triathlon, and beach volleyball.
This year’s edition of the Asian Beach Games will be the first time the multi-sport event is to be held in a decade – with the previous occasion happening in 2016 in Da Nang, Vietnam.
In the past five editions of the meeting, Bahrain bagged a total of 11 medals, including seven gold, three silver, and one bronze.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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