Could advancement and icelandic cool cause Bahrain to advance?
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Roshan Amiri
- . January 3, 2023
- . Update: January 3, 2023 7:48 pm
Gumundur Gumundsson was succeeded by Aron Kristjánsson after he left in 2018 to take the job as Iceland’s coach. He made sure that the Icelandic influence persisted at all levels by hiring fellow Icelander Halldór Jóhann Sigfsson as the youth and junior coach to ensure smooth progression between the teams.
When Bahrain’s men’s handball team defeated Qatar in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2019, Kristjánsson made history by guaranteeing that they were the first Bahraini team to qualify for an Olympic Games.
Following a little setback brought on by COVID-19 and the ensuing postponement to Tokyo 2020, Kristjánsson returned to Iceland to fulfil club obligations. As a result, recent advancements were halted, and German coach Michael Roth briefly took his position until being replaced.
Sigfsson later contributed to Bahrain’s first main-round appearance at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship in Egypt, which came after Bahrain defeated DR Congo in the preliminary round.
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Despite this, the Bahrain Handball Federation’s 21st-place finish fell short of expectations. After some time, Kristjánsson returned and led the team to Tokyo, where they lost their opening match to Sweden by a score of 31:32 before defeating the hosts’ Japan by a score of 32:30 to advance to the quarterfinals, where they lost and finished eighth but were hailed as heroes when they arrived home.
Bahrain lost to Denmark in both the Tokyo 2020 and Egypt 2021 tournaments, and they will play them again in the Poland/Sweden 2023 tournament together with Belgium and Tunisia.
After withdrawing from Qatar in 2015, they only participated four times in their past five world championship qualifying events, placing as high as 20th in 2019.
Husain Alsayyad, the team captain, is one of the three crucial players for Kristjánsson. Goalkeeper Mohamed A. Husain and left-back Ali Merza Salman support the centre-back in the backcourt and defence, respectively.
Before travelling to Europe, where they will be headquartered in Spain for a training camp and competition in the period from 3-10 January, Kristjánsson will prepare with his team in Bahrain during December, a time that includes matches against Saudi Arabia (19
