BOXING – BAHRAIN named yesterday a five-member senior boxing national team that will be going for gold at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) announced the kingdom’s hopefuls who will be entering the ring at Nishio City Central Gymnasium for their respective competitions.
The squad includes Maryam Khamis as Bahrain’s lone women’s boxer. She is joined by men’s fighters Omar Budhahei, Hamsa Vogel, Jorge Luis Lobaina, and GCC Games champion Ali Abdalla.
Khamis will be competing in the women’s 54kg weight category amongst a field of 20 boxers. On the distaff, Budhahei is one of 29 participants who will be contesting the men’s 60kg division. Vogel is the kingdom’s entrant in the 16-fighter men’s 80kg category, while Lobaina and 14 others will be trading jabs in the men’s 90kg boxers. Abdalla will be battling in the men’s 70kg class amongst a field of 25.
The Bahrainis have been gearing up for their campaign with training in Japan ahead of the boxing events at this year’s Asiad, which are scheduled for September 21 to October 2.
The kingdom’s boxers will be aiming to step onto the podium for the first time ever in the history of the Asian Games.
Bahrain only made their boxing debut in the previous edition of the quadrennial Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) spectacle held in 2022 in Hangzhou, China. Two fighters flew the kingdom’s flag then, including Danis Latypov in the men’s over-92kg class, where he made it into the quarter-finals, and Azat Makhmetov in the men’s 51kg division, where he bowed out of contention in the round of 32.
Bahrain’s five fighters are the latest additions confirmed by the BOC for the kingdom’s star-studded delegation at this year’s Asian Games.
Boxing is one of five combat sports the kingdom’s top men and women athletes are taking part in. The others are wrestling, judo, taekwondo, and jiu-jitsu.
Bahrain’s contingent are also set to vie for medals in five-on-five basketball, athletics, handball, swimming, weightlifting, cycling, shooting, badminton, esports, table tennis, and triathlon.
The Bahrainis are amongst 11,000 athletes, both men and women, flying the flags of the OCA’s 45 member nations in Aichi-Nagoya. They will be going for glory in 469 medal events across 43 sports.
Bahrain are taking part for the 14th time in the Asian Games, which is the world’s biggest multi-sport occasion outside of the Olympics. The kingdom first participated in 1974 and have been a part of the event in each edition since.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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