BAHRAIN is set to compete in the 2019 International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Youth (U19) World Championship in North Macedonia.
The Bahrainis are one of 24 national teams from all over the world taking part.
The competition is scheduled to begin on Tuesday next week.
The nationals left for the host nation on Monday. They will be conducting a training camp prior to the start of the biennial IHF event, which is being held for the eighth time.
The Bahrainis qualified as champions of Asia. Three other teams are representing the continent, including Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
The 24 teams have been divided into four groups of six for the preliminary round of competition. Bahrain are in Group ‘C’ along with Denmark, Japan, Argentina, Nigeria and hosts North Macedonia.
Group ‘A’ features Croatia, Spain, Slovenia, Norway, Chile and Saudi; Group ‘B’ includes two-time defending champions France, Sweden, Hungary, Egypt, Chinese Taipei and Canada; and Group ‘D’ is composed of Iceland, Germany, Serbia, Tunisia, Brazil and Portugal.
The tournament’s opening stage will be played in a single round-robin, after which the top four teams from each group move on to the Round of 16 knockout phase.
The bottom two squads will continue on in the classification brackets for 17th to 24th place, with the 17th-placed squad taking home the President’s Cup.
The world championship is scheduled to continue until August 18, when the gold and bronze medal games will be played.
Bahrain travelled to North Macedonia with a 16 player squad. The roster includes Husain Alnajjar, Jasim Khamis, Mahdi Mahdi, Ali Fuad, Adel Afrooz, Ali Muntadher, Husain Khamis, Ali Mohamed, Mohamed Rabia, Ali Jaafar, Mujtaba Alzaimoor, Moayed Dhuaib, Ahmed Adel Isa, Husain Mahfoodh, Qasim Qambar and Mohamed Habib.
Coach
The Bahrainis are coached by Halldor Johann Sigfusson, who is from Iceland and who was a former player. Sigfusson is fresh from leading Bahrain’s junior national team to the President’s Cup in the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in Spain, which concluded on Sunday.
A few of Bahrain’s players on the junior squad are also eligible to play in the youth team, and they will be bringing their recent valuable experience to this competition.
Bahrain’s first match will be on Tuesday against Nigeria. They then play Japan on August 8 and North Macedonia on August 9. The nationals then face off with Argentina on August 11 before playing Denmark the next evening for their final game of the first round.
Bahrain are taking part in the youth world championship for the fourth time. Their best finish was eighth in the 2007 event, which was held in Bahrain.
Bahrain’s delegation that travelled to North Macedonia was headed by Bahrain Handball Association official Jasim Khamis and it includes assistant coach Mohamed Almaraghi, goalkeeper coach Ahmed Mansoor and physiotherapist Mohamed Almansoor.
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