BAHRAIN are set to compete in the International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Junior World Handball Championship 2019.
The tournament is scheduled to get underway on Tuesday and it will be held in the Spanish cities of Vigo and Pontevedra.
Bahrain are one of 24 under-21 national teams from all across the globe competing in the biennial event, which is organised by the IHF.
This year’s championship marks only the second time Bahrain have booked a berth in the prestigious tournament. They had previously also appeared in the 1995 edition, where they finished 17th.
The Bahrainis qualified after finishing third in the Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship held last year in Oman. They are representing the continent along with South Korea and Japan.
The nationals have been drawn in Group ‘C’ for the preliminary round of the competition. They will be playing against Portugal, Croatia, Hungary, Brazil and Kosovo.
Groups
There are four groups in all in the opening phase. Group ‘A’ includes hosts and defending champions Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Tunisia, Japan and the US. Group ‘B’ features France, Egypt, Sweden, Nigeria, South Korea and Australia and Group ‘D’ is composed of Germany, Iceland, Norway, Argentina, Denmark and Chile.
The top four teams in each group at the end of the preliminaries move on to the Round of 16. The remaining sides will play in the classification stage.
Bahrain’s under-21 team is coached by former player Halldor Johann Sigfusson from Iceland. His coaching staff includes Bahrainis Ebrahim Abbas Ali, Ali Radhi Ali, Ameen Al Qallaf and Mohamed Almansoor.
Bahrain have 16 players on the roster for the world championships. They are Abdulla Al Zaimoor, Ahmed Fadhul, Ahmed Husain Ali, Hasan Merza Ali, Mohammed Eid, Mohamed Habib Mohamed, Hussain Al Najjar, Naser Ali Naser, Yusuf Al Qasimi, Abdulla Ali, Mahmood Husain Mohamed, Qasim Jaafar Qambar, Mujtaba Yaseen Al Zaimoor, Moayed Sameer Shuaib, Qasim Al Shuwaikh and Husain Mahfoodh.
The Bahrainis are currently in a training camp in Portugal.
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