Bahrain roster set for Asian handball

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A full-strength Bahrain squad that will be flying the Kingdom’s flag at home in the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship was named yesterday.

The Bahrain Handball Association (BHA) announced the 20-player roster that will be guided by head coach Aron Kristjansson.

The continental competition, which gets underway tomorrow at Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town, also acts as a qualifier for 2025 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship.

The top five on the final ranking secure berths in next year’s worlds, to be held in Croatia, Denmark, and Norway.

The Bahrainis are set to be spearheaded by inspirational captain and international handball star Hussain Al Sayyad, who is back from an injury.

He sat out the team’s recent trip to France where they took part in a friendly competition with Brazil and Tunisia.

The roster also features top veterans including goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain, Mohammed Mirza, Ali Mirza, Mohammed Habib Ahmed, Ali Eid, Hassan Shehab, Ahmed Almaqabi, Ahmed Jalal, and Hassan Al Samaheeji, along with the Kingdom’s young talents such as Mohammed Habib Nasser, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, Mohammed Hameed, Qassim Qambar, Ahmed Redha, Abdulla Al Zaimour, Hassan Madan, Jassim Khamis, Ali Al Ashiri and goalkeeper Hesham Issa.

Excluded Three players were excluded from the team that competed in Nantes.

They were Mohammed Abdulredha, Adel Mohammed and Hassan Mirza.

Sixteen of the continent’s top handball nations are in the Kingdom for the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship, which is being held in Bahrain for the fourth time, following the 2016, 2014 and 1993 editions.

The participating national teams have already arrived on the island ahead of tomorrow’s start. The championship’s preliminary round will be held until Tuesday next week.

The field has been divided into four groups for this stage, at the end of which the top two from each move on to the main round and stay in contention for the coveted title.

The bottom two squads will compete for the Martyr Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah Cup. Bahrain are in Group D for the preliminaries along with Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and the UAE.

Group A features defending champions Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Chinese Taipei.

Group B includes Iran, South Korea, China and New Zealand; and Group C is composed of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, India and Japan. Four matches are set to be held every day in the preliminary round.

The first game on each day is scheduled for a 1pm start, with the last fixture beginning at 7pm.