TDT | Manama
Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain yesterday selected its final 19-member senior men’s handball national team to compete in the Asian Men’s Qualification Tournament for a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The qualifiers are scheduled to be held from Wednesday to October 28 in Doha, Qatar, with 11 countries competing for a coveted spot in the Olympic men’s handball tournament.
The team list was announced yesterday by the Bahrain Handball Association (BHA) ahead of the team’s departure for the Qatari capital today.
The majority of the team has just returned from recent activities where they won a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games earlier this month.
These players include skipper Hussein Al Sayyad, Mohamed Abdul-Hussein, Ali Eid, Mohamed Habib Nasser, Mohamed Habib Ahmed, Ali Mirza, Mohamed Mirza, Ahmed Fadel, Qasim Kambar. , Hassan Madan, Mohamed Hameed Rabia, Hasan Mirza, Mahdi Saad, and Hesham Issa. Hassam Al Samahij. Meanwhile, the four new additions are Hassan Shehab, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, Jassim Khamis and Ahmed Reda.
Bahrain’s national team is coached by Icelandic tactician Aaron Kristjansson, who led Bahrain to the country’s first Olympic men’s handball appearance at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
It was also the first time in history that Bahrain qualified for an Olympic team event.
Kristjansson will be aiming for a consecutive victory this time as well. Bahrain is in Group B of the qualifying tournament along with Iran, Kuwait, Japan and Kazakhstan.
Group A will include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, UAE, India and China. Bahrain will begin their match against Kazakhstan in Doha on Wednesday, before facing Japan on Thursday before a rest day.
The team will only resume play against Kuwait next Sunday, after which they will have a rest day before finishing qualifying with a match against Iran on October 24th.
After the single round robin, only the top two teams from the two groups will advance to the semi-finals scheduled for October 26th.
The final and third place match will be held on October 28th.
The runners-up of the Doha qualifier will have another chance to book a ticket to Paris, but will have to compete against other top handball nations from around the world in one of three Olympic qualifier events.
Twelve teams will participate in men’s handball at the Paris Olympics.
France is in the fray as host nation, as is reigning world champion Denmark.
One spot each will then be won from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The final six teams will then advance to the 2024 IHF Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament. The tournament is scheduled to be held in March next year with the participation of 12 national teams.