BEACH HANDBALL – Bahrain have named their final 10-player squad that will compete in beach handball at the third GCC Beach Games in Muscat, Oman.
The roster was confirmed yesterday to the GDN by the Bahrain Handball Federation.
The kingdom’s team will be spearheaded by former senior men’s national team member Bilal Basham. The rest of the squad features Moayed Sameer Shuaib, Sayed Ahmed Marzooq, Ali Mahmood Mohamed, Adam Isa Alnasheet, Mahdi Ali, Ali Abdulhasan Alhayki, Komail Fuad Ali, Abdulla Radhi Alzaimour, and Ali Ghassan Aryash.
The beach handball team have been training locally for the competition and have wrapped up their preparations prior to their departure for the Omani capital.
The kingdom’s squad bagged the first-ever gold medals in beach handball at the inaugural GCC Beach Games in 2010, held at home. They then came up agonisingly short in defending their title in the second GCC Beach Games in 2015, held in Doha, Qatar. There, Bahrain had to settle for the silver medals after losing to the host Qataris in the final.
Beach handball is one of the eight sports lined up at this year’s GCC Beach Games. The others are beach soccer, beach athletics, sailing, tent pegging, beach volleyball, paramotor, and marathon swimming.
The beach handball matches in Muscat are scheduled to begin on Saturday, when the official opening ceremony of the six-nation meeting will also take place.
Action in paramotor will also get underway on Saturday, in which the first medals of the third GCC Beach Games will be handed out. Paramotor is a unique form of the extreme air sport of powered paragliding.
Sailing will then begin their contests on Sunday and then beach soccer will kick off on Monday. Beach volleyball, beach athletics, and tent pegging will then take place from Tuesday onwards.
Marathon swimming is the last of the sports that will get underway. It will be on Wednesday next week.
The third GCC Beach Games will be bringing together more than 300 athletes from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and hosts Oman, competing in 39 events across eight sports.
The first-ever edition of the GCC Beach Games was organised by Bahrain in 2010. The kingdom’s athletes participated in six sports then, including beach soccer, beach handball, beach volleyball, bodybuilding, sailing, and open water swimming.
The second edition took place in the Qatari capital in 2015. The Bahrainis also competed in six sports, including beach soccer, beach handball, beach volleyball, 3x3 basketball, sailing, and swimming.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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