Manama, Oct. 13. (BNA) – Bahrain has won the right to host the 16th edition of the Asian Senior Men’s Handball Championship, GDN reported.
This was announced yesterday at a Press conference by Bahrain Handball Association (BHA) President Ali Isa and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) acting secretary general Abdulrahman Askar.
The prestigious competition, which is the continent’s premier event under the Asian Handball Federation (AHF), will take place from January 25 to February 7.
Matches will be played at the Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town and Isa Sports City in Riffa.
While the participating teams will be battling for medals, the top three finishers will also be vying for one of three qualifying tickets to the 2015 IHF World Handball Championship.
Next year will mark the second time Bahrain will be hosting the Asian tournament. The Kingdom also staged the event back in 1993.
Isa revealed that Bahrain was one of three countries initially bidding for the honour to organise the competition, with the others being Iran and the UAE.
Isa said that a team from the Kuwait-based AHF visited the Kingdom last month to assess the match and practice facilities, hotels and transportation, and other important factors that would be needed to successfully hold the Asian championship.
The same team then made a trip to Tehran for the same purpose, and following the two visits, Bahrain were recently given the green light as hosts.
Isa said that Bahrain has long been ready to host a handball competition of this magnitude.
The Kingdom had already hosted the International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Youth World Championship back in 2007 with 16 teams from across five continents competing.
The upcoming Asian championship is expected to feature up to 14 squads, with the final number soon to be confirmed by the AHF.
Isa thanked the BOC, in particular Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and BOC president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, for their full support in Bahrain’s bid to host the tournament.
On his part, Askar pledged to continue backing BHA and the event’s organising committee in anything they will need to ensure the success of the event.
Askar also said that the BOC’s marketing arm will assist BHA in their search for a tournament sponsor.
Meanwhile, Isa added that Bahrain TV has already confirmed their interest in broadcasting all the matches live.
Further details of the event will be announced soon.
South Korea won the gold medal the last time the tournament was held in Bahrain back in 1993. Kuwait were the silver-medallists and Japan the bronze medal winners.
Bahrain have competed in 12 of the previous editions of the tournament.
They have never won the title, but clinched the silver in the 2010 edition which earned them their historic first-ever berth in the world championships, and a bronze medal in 1995. The 1995 edition was not a qualifying event.
Bahrain finished sixth in the last edition of the competition in 2012 in Jeddah, where South Korea won the title ahead of Qatar and host Saudis.
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BNA 1204 GMT 2013/10/13