VOLLEYBALL – BAHRAIN have called up a 17-player senior men’s volleyball national team that will begin their preparations for their participation in the fourth GCC Games, scheduled to take place next month in Doha, Qatar.
The Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) announced yesterday the list of the kingdom’s leading players who are part of the first group of selections of newly appointed head coach Ivan Joksimovic from Montenegro.
Joksimovic was officially signed by the BVA earlier this month to take over for the departed Arnaud Josserand from France.
The GCC Games will be Joksimovic’s first competition in charge of the kingdom’s senior men’s squad, and he has chosen a star-studded roster that features players from six of Bahrain’s top volleyball clubs.
Four talents are coming from newly crowned Isa Bin Rashid Bahrain Volleyball League champions Dar Kulaib, including Hasan Alwarqaa, Ali Habib, Mahmoud Abdulwahed, and Abbas Abdulla. Joksimovic was in charge of Dar Kulaib before taking on his role with Bahrain, and he helped guide them to a perfect, undefeated record in 26 games en route to securing their fifth title in league history.
Called up from 2024-25 national champions Muharraq were Mahmood Alafyah, Sayed Hashim Issa, and Mohammed Jassim; and from Al Ahli were Hussain Mansoor, Mahmoud Abdelhussain, Hani Alawi, Hassan Al Shakhouri, Hussain Abdulla, Ayman Harouna, and Ali Ebrahim.
Completing the squad are Ahmed Sadiq from Al Najma, Mohammed Al Khabbaz from Al Shabab, and Abdullah Mohammed Jaafar from Bani Jamra.
Some of the bigger names who are currently not on the team are Mohammed Yaqoob, Naser Anan, and Mohammed Anan. It is unknown if they will be joining the Bahrainis at a later stage.
The fourth GCC Games are slated for May 11 to 22 with elite athletes from all six GCC nations taking part in 19 sports.
The nationals will be playing five games in the men’s volleyball tournament, which will be held in league format. Their opening assignment will be against Oman on May 16. They take on the UAE the next day before battling Kuwait on May 19. The nationals then face Asian volleyball juggernauts and hosts Qatar on May 20 in their penultimate fixture, after which they complete their schedule against Saudi Arabia on the GCC Games’ concluding day on May 22.
The kingdom’s spikers are expected to be amongst the top contenders for the podium in their sport. They were the silver-medallists in the previous edition of the GCC Games held in Kuwait City in 2022, when Qatar took gold and Oman won the bronze medals.
Bahrain were previously back-to-back champions from the event’s two earlier editions in Dammam, Saudi Arabia in 2015, and in the inaugural GCC Games held at home in 2011.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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