?Bahrain’s delegation to the Fourth Asian Beach Games today (November 15) will begin their quest for medals as the Games were officially off to a colorful opening ceremony yesterday.
The nationals will be taking part in eighth different sporting events, namely beach football, beach handball, beach volleyball, athletics, sailing, swimming, triathlon and weightlifting for the 10-day Games.
Kicking off the action for Bahrain at the Games will be the beach handball team, who take on Kuwait. The beach handball tournament has been rescheduled as Mongolia and Maldives pulled out of the competition, bringing the number of teams down to 10.
Following the new draw, Bahrain were drawn in Group ‘B’, which also features Pakistan, Japan, India, Thailand and Bangladesh.
The Bahrainis, under national coach Khalid Al Hiddi, played two friendly matches in Phuket ahead of the Games. They suffered a 0-2 defeat to host Thailand, but then gained some confidence after defeating Japan 2-0.
Al Hiddi will be banking on a number of experienced beach handball players, such as Jaffer Abdulnabi, Abdulla Ali, Mohammed Habib and Fahad Jassim.
Other teams members are Jaffer Abbas, Mohammed Jawad, Belal Basham, Mahmood Ali, Hussain Al Qaydoom and Sayed Shehab.
The beach football event also featured a reschedule of its draw, following last-minute withdrawals from Palestine, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq.
The organizing committee had to make a new draw as Bahrain were placed in a group along with China and Uzbekistan.
Bahrain coach Joao Almeida of Portugal named 10 players for his Asian Beach Games squad. They are Ayoob Naseeb, Ebrahim Hasan, Mohammed Ashoor, Thani Al Dossary, Jasim Al Dossary, Isa Al Dossary, Abdulla Abdullatif, Mohammed Al Ghawi, besides goalkeepers Salah Salman and Saleh Al Dossary.
This 10-day action-packed event brings athletes from 45 nations competing in 26 sports and 169 events.
The slogan is “Celebrate Charming Sunshine”. Patong Beach and Karon Beach are the two centres hosting the Games, while the Opening Ceremony is on Friday, November 14 at Saphan Hin Sports Centre.