HANDBALL – Bahrain's Al Najma take on hosts Kuwait Sports Club this evening to get their medal bid underway in the 28th Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship in Sabah Al Salem, Kuwait.
The game is scheduled for a 6pm start, Bahrain time, and it will be played at Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Salim Al Sabah Covered Halls Complex.
Najma are one of seven teams in the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) event, which also serves as a qualifier for the 19th IHF Men’s Handball Club World Championship.
The winners will secure direct qualification for the International Handball Federation (IHF) event, scheduled to be held in Egypt in October later this year. They are the kingdom’s lone representatives.
Najma officials took part in the pre-competition technical meeting on Friday, when they presented the team’s uniforms for final approval.
Following Najma’s contest today, they next take on Al Duhail from Qatar tomorrow at 4pm.
A rest day will then be held on Tuesday, after which the Bahrainis continue their schedule against Sharjah SC from the UAE on Wednesday at 8pm.
They then face Al Arabi of Qatar on Thursday at 4pm and then play their penultimate fixture against Burgan SC of Kuwait on Friday at 4pm.
Najma complete the preliminaries against Khaleej Club from Saudi Arabia on Sunday next week at 8pm.
After the single round-robin, the top four teams on the standings move on to the semi-finals, scheduled for June 15. The gold and bronze medal games will then be held on June 17.
In yesterday’s games as part of the opening evening of action, Burgan edged past Duhail 29-28, while Kuwait SC defeated Arabi 27-22.
Najma, to be guided at Sabah Al Salem by newly signed head coach Abdulrahman Mohamed, will be relying on their top players Mohammed Habib Ahmed, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, Hasan Madan, Ahmed Fadhul, Komail Mahfoudh, Mohammed Abdulredha, Mahdi Saad, Mishari Ebrahim, and Sayed Ali Basem.
They have also boosted their squad with the signings, on loan, of Jassim Khamis from Al Shabab and goalkeeper Hesham Issa from Al Dair.
They have also picked up European professional players Uros Mitrovic from Serbia, Radojica Cepic from Montenegro, and Daniel Neves from Portugal.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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