ASIAN BEACH GAMES – Bahrain’s beach handball national team kicked off their final preparations in Sanya, China yesterday ahead of the sixth Asian Beach Games.
The nationals took to the beach handball court at Tianya Haijiao West Side for training under the supervision of head coach Hussain Al Qaidoom.
They also played a pair of tune-up contests against their counterparts from Oman in the morning and evening.
The Bahrainis are scheduled to continue practising ahead of the start of their competition on Tuesday, when they will face off with China at 7am before taking on India later that same day at 12noon. Both times are Bahrain.
The kingdom’s beach handball 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.
Following their fixtures against the Chinese and Indians, the Bahrainis will be taking on the Philippines on Wednesday.
They then go up against Sri Lanka on Friday, Iran on Saturday next week, and then Hong Kong the following day.
The semis are then slated for April 28, with the gold and bronze medal clashes on April 30.
Off the playing court, Bahrain’s beach handball squad settled into their official residence in the athletes’ village yesterday.
They were received upon reaching the venue by chef de mission and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) executive director of operations Ahmed Abdulghaffar, along with deputy chef de mission and BOC Arab and international relations head Maryam Mardana.
Abdulghaffar and Mardana accompanied the athletes on a tour of the various facilities at the village and had a look at the services available to them.
Bahrain are amongst 45 delegations from across the continent who will be competing in the highly anticipated Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) meeting.
Aside from beach handball, the kingdom’s athletes will also be taking part in 3x3 basketball, beach wrestling, and open water swimming, which is under the sport of aquatics.
These are part of the 14 sports at this year’s Asian Beach Games.
The others 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, Bahrain bagged a total of 11 medals, including seven gold, three silver, and one bronze.
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