HANDBALL – Bahrain have been drawn in a challenging group for the 29th IHF Men’s Handball World Championship.
The draw was held by the International Handball Federation (IHF) in Zagreb, Croatia, to allocate 32 senior men’s handball national teams into eight groups for the preliminary round of the global competition, which will be held from January 14 to February 2 next year, co-hosted by Croatia, Denmark and Norway.
The Bahrainis will be competing in Group H along with African giants Egypt, South American standouts Argentina and co-hosts Croatia.
“I am not sure about luck, both Egypt and France were tough opponents from the first pot,” Croatia head coach Dagur Sigurdsson was quoted as saying at the draw. “We played Argentina a few weeks ago, I know Bahrain from my previous job as the Japan national team head coach, therefore I think it will be a tough group.”
The Group H games will be held at Arena Zagreb in the Croatian capital, where Group G will also be playing featuring Slovenia, Iceland, Cuba and Cape Verde.
Group A has been considered the toughest for the preliminaries, with four European teams in the fray, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland. Defending champions Denmark headline Group B where they are joined by Italy, Algeria and Tunisia; while Group C is composed of 2023 silver-medallists France, Austria, Asian champions Qatar and Kuwait.
Group D consists of Hungary, the Netherlands, North Macedonia and Guinea; Group E includes Norway, Portugal, Brazil and the US; and Group F comprises Sweden, Japan, Chile and 2023 bronze-medallists Spain.
Bahrain will be competing for the sixth time in the men’s world championship. They qualified after finishing as bronze-medallists in the 21st Asian Men’s Handball Championship, held in January of this year in the kingdom.
The Bahrainis’ previous appearance in the 2023 worlds was their best so far, having advanced to the main round for only the second time en route to placing 16th overall amongst the 32 participating nations.
Bahrain made its debut in the tournament in 2011 when they finished 23rd.
They have since played in the past four editions, placing 23rd again in 2017, 20th in 2019 and 21st in 2021, when they qualified for the main stage for the first time.
The kingdom’s national team are coached by Icelandic tactician Aron Kristjansson. They recently competed in an international friendly tournament in Egypt, where they played Qatar and the host team.
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