BASKETBALL – Bahrain have named their under-23 women’s and men’s 3x3 basketball national teams that will be competing in the Fiba 3x3 Youth Nations League 2026-Asia West/Pacific conference in Singapore.
The kingdom’s representatives are scheduled to hit the hardwood in all six stops of their competition, to be held over as many days from Thursday to August 26.
Bahrain are one of six nations taking part in both the women’s and men’s events.
The others are Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkmenistan, and home side Singapore.
The women’s national team features top 3x3 players Bayan Salman, Ninel Merkotun, Polina Sviatskaia, JaMya Robinson, Noor Najaf, and Amina Hani.
They are coached by veteran Bahraini tactician Murtadha Mohammed.
The men’s national squad is composed of Ismail Kamal, Meshal Mohammed, Nasser Alanzoor, Mohammed Alanzi, Elyas Younes, and Hamad Faisal.
They are coached by Bogdan Dragovic, who is fresh from competing with Bahrain’s Seef in the Singapore Challenger as part of the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2026.
The national teams’ manager is Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) official Ahmed Elyas.
The BBA announced the kingdom’s final rosters prior to their departure for Singapore on Saturday night.
Their upcoming Fiba 3x3 Youth Nations League 2026-Asia West/Pacific events act as qualification for the Fiba 3x3 U23 World Cup, which is to be held in Hubei, China, from September 15 to 19.
In the first of the six stops, which will kick start the action on Thursday later this week, Bahrain’s women have been slotted into Pool A along with Saudi and hosts Singapore.
Pool B features Australia, Qatar, and Turkmenistan.
The Bahrainis get their campaign underway against the Singaporeans at 11.10am before playing their Saudi counterparts at 1pm later that same day.
In the men’s competition, Bahrain are also in Pool A with Saudi and Singapore, with Pool B composed of Australia, Qatar, and Turkmenistan.
They first lock horns with the Singaporeans at 9.45am and then take on their Saudi rivals at 1.25pm.
Bahrain’s teams must finish atop Pool A in order to advance to their respective finals, where they will take on the winners of Pool B.
The women’s title-decider is scheduled for 2pm followed by the men’s at 2.25pm.
All times are Bahrain.
The FIBA 3x3 Youth Nations League 2026 features under-23 national teams competing across distinct conferences all over the world.
Each conference plays six developmental tournament stages, or stops, to determine who qualifies for the season-ending final.
Aside from Asia West/Pacific, the other conferences are Africa East, Africa North, Africa South, Americas North, Americas South, Asia Central/East, Asia SEA, Europe One, Europe Two, Europe Three, Europe Four, and Pacific.
There are also conferences for under-21 teams, including Asia One, Asia Two, Europe One, Europe Two, and Europe Three.
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