THE young but supremely talented quartet of Mahmood Anwar, Hussain Salah, Mohammed Bu Allay and Hussain Akbar all qualified for the Bahrain Final of the Red Bull King of the Rock one-on-one basketball championship.

They were part of the third batch of players who made it through to Friday’s highly anticipated finale. They excelled in the third and penultimate qualifying event held at the newly refurbished indoor basketball hall of Muharraq Club, which concluded early yesterday morning.

Anwar, Salah, Bu Allay and Akbar now join the other eight players who have already also qualified, namely Sayed Hashim Habib, Nooh Qaedi, Hani Shams and Hassan Al Mosawi, all of whom are from the Al Ahli Club qualifiers; and Mahmood Aziz, Mahmood Khalil, Socorro Dennis and Caryn Moore, who booked their tickets from the Manama Club qualifying event.

Friday’s Bahrain Final will feature 16 of the kingdom’s best players, who will be battling it out for the number one spot.

The roster is nearly complete with the first dozen already being identified, and only four more slots are needed to be filled. They were taken up in the Al Hidd qualifiers held late last night.

The winning player who will emerge from Bahrain will win a golden ticket to compete at the World Finals in Alcatraz, San Francisco, in the US this September.

Batelco is sponsoring the competition locally, with the support of the Bahrain Basketball Association.

Those who would like to get the latest updates on Bahrain’s King of the Rock competition, follow @redbullbahrain on Twitter and visit redbullmea.com for all the pictures and videos from the event.

In 2010, Red Bull King of The Rock made history by being the first official sporting event to be held inside one of the world’s most notorious locations: Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay.

Known as “The Rock”, Alcatraz locked down the most dangerous men in America’s penal history from Al Capone to Bumpy Johnson. For 29 years, more than 15,000 convicts tried the impossible, to escape its walls. After being shut down, Alcatraz turned into a tourist destination and inspired several movie productions.

In 2011, Red Bull King of The Rock turned global by sending some of the best basketball players from around the world to play in Alcatraz’s yard.

That year and in the 2012 edition, “Baby Shaq” from Washington, DC, dominated the World Finals where he beat Czech player Lukas Kraus for the title.