Bahrain set for under-16 Asian basketball

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s youth national basketball team are set to compete in the FIBA U16 Asian Championship in Qatar starting next week. The competition, which is set to feature 13 nations from across the continent, tips off on Sunday and continues until June 19.

The Bahrainis have been drawn in a tough Group A for the preliminary round. It includes Australia, India and hosts Qatar. Group B features Iran, Lebanon and Indonesia; Group C comprises the Philippines, Japan and Kuwait; while Group D includes South Korea, New Zealand and Kazakhstan.

Bahrain open their tournament campaign against their Qatari counterparts on Sunday. They then face off with India on Monday, before playing their final group game against Australia on Tuesday.

After a single round-robin, the top teams from each of the four groups advance directly to the quarter-finals, while the second and third-ranked squads will compete in the play-offs for another chance to make it into the last eight.

The Bahrainis are coached by Murtadha Mohammed, and they are training twice daily in the final lead-up to the competition in both the morning and evening. Aside from being a continental championship, the tournament also acts as a qualifying event for FIBA Asia for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup, which will be held next month in Spain. Four teams from Asia will punch their tickets to the worlds.

This will be the fourth time in the history of the under-16 competition that Bahrain is participating. They previously played in the 2009, 2013 and 2015 editions, when they finished 12th, eighth and 12th, overall, respectively.