BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN’S final 12-player line-up that will be going for gold in the Gulf Basketball Association (GBA) U18 Championship 2026 has been named.
The kingdom’s youth men’s basketball national team arrived in Doha, Qatar for the five-nation tournament, which gets underway tomorrow and continues until next Thursday next week at Al Gharafa Sports Club Arena in the district of Al Rayyan.
The competition also acts as a qualifier for the Fiba U18 Asia Cup 2026, to be played in Ahmedabad, India from August 13 to 23. The top two teams from the GBA event will book their tickets to the continental showcase, joining a high-quality field of 16 squads.
Bahrain’s roster in Doha is spearheaded by star big man Somto Patrick Onoduenyi, the Most Valuable Player at the recently held 23rd Arab Youth Men’s Basketball Championship 2026, and his frontcourt partner Hassan Abdulkadir – forming Bahrain’s dominant twin towers.
The rest of the team list features Mujtaba Mahmood Rayyan, Ali Hussain Mohammed, Mohammed Mahmood, Mohammed Adel Abdulla, Ali Khalil Redha, Hussain Fuad Sharaf, Ali Sadeq Al Haddad, Mahdi Habib Baqer, Yousef Yaqoob Meshaei, and Hussain Ahmed Abdulla.
The kingdom’s delegation that travelled to Qatar is led by Bahrain Basketball Association financial secretary Mohammed Abdulsamad, and it includes veteran head coach Salman Ramadhan and his technical and administrative staff.
The nationals were received upon reaching Doha by Qatar Basketball Federation officials. They then went right to work with a practice session yesterday evening, supervised by Ramadhan.
The Bahrainis head into the league-type tournament as back-to-back Arab youth basketball champions, having recently retained their crown in the tournament, which wrapped up at the beginning of the month in Sfax, Tunisia.
Among the six GCC nations competing at the Qatari capital, only the UAE are not hitting the hardwood.
Bahrain begin their GBA title bid against Saudi Arabia tomorrow evening at 6pm. They then take on Kuwait on Sunday before playing Oman on Monday for their third game in as many days. The nationals then have two days’ rest before going up against the host Qataris on the championship’s concluding day on Thursday.
Bahrain were bronze-medallists from the previous GBA under-18 qualification event held in 2024, but missed out on a place in that year’s Asian competition.
This year’s Fiba U18 Asia Cup already has 14 nations confirmed, with the two GBA teams set to complete the field. Already in are defending champions Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, India, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Thailand.
Bahrain are hoping to claim their place in the Fiba Asia tournament for the seventh time – with their last appearance in the 2018 edition held in Thailand.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))