ASIAN BEACH GAMES – BAHRAIN get their hunt for medals underway today in the sixth Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China.
The kingdom’s beach handball national team will be taking on the host Chinese in their opening fixture on the first day of the men’s competition, to be held at Tianya Haijiao Venue Cluster.
The contest, part of Group A in the preliminary round, is scheduled for a 7am start, Bahrain time.
The Bahrainis were also originally scheduled to face India later today, but the Indians are no longer participating in the men’s beach handball event.
In other divisional clashes today, the Philippines face Hong Kong, Iran take on the Philippines, and China play Sri Lanka; while in Group B, Jordan battle Thailand, Pakistan take on Qatar, the Maldives face Bangladesh, Oman lock horns with Mongolia, Jordan play the Maldives, Pakistan take on Bangladesh, Mongolia go against Thailand, and Oman go head-to-head with Qatar.
Tomorrow is a rest day on the court as the official opening ceremony will be held at Sanya Bay.
Bahrain will continue their beach handball campaign on Thursday against the Philippines. They then face Sri Lanka on Friday, before playing Iran on Sunday next week. The nationals complete their schedule in the preliminaries against Hong Kong on Monday.
The Bahrainis will be hoping to secure a spot amongst the top two in their group to make it through to the semi-finals, scheduled for Tuesday next week. The gold and bronze medal contests will then be held on April 30.
Bahrain’s beach handball national team are coached by Hussain Al Qaidoom and his assistant Jaafar Abbas. They have a roster of 10 in Sanya, 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.
The nationals concluded their preparations yesterday with a training session and tune-up game against their Bangladeshi counterparts.
In attendance were Bahrain’s chef de mission in Sanya 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.
Also yesterday and as part of the pre-competition formalities, Abbas and beach handball national team administrator Fahad Jassim attended the official technical meeting, which also featured representatives from the other participating national teams.
A number of technical and organisational issues were discussed such as match schedules, the mechanism for registering players, and the distribution of teams across stadiums and practice facilities, in addition to reviewing some amendments and new rules in the sport, in order to ensure clarity for all participants before the start of action. The squads also presented their kits for their upcoming contests.
Aside from beach handball, Bahrain are also taking part at the sixth Asian Beach Games in 3x3 basketball, beach wrestling, and open water swimming, which is under the sport of aquatics.
The 3x3 basketball team will begin their tournament on Saturday, while William Balzano and fellow-simmer Robert Bonsall will hit the water on Sunday. The kingdom’s quartet of elite grapplers will then go for beach wrestling gold on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
Aside from the four aforementioned sports, also set to be held as part of the sporting programme in Sanya 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 being held in a decade – with the previous occasion happening in 2016 in Da Nang, Vietnam.
In the past five Asian Beach Games, Bahrain have bagged a total of 11 medals, including seven gold, three silver, and one bronze.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))