Bahrain’s volleyball fans to enjoy packed schedule of exciting matches in FIVB U21 World Championship

Manama, July 16 (BNA): The Kingdom of Bahrain’s volleyball fans are in for a special treat this weekend as a packed three days of matches are set to take place in the preliminary round of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019. Eight games are scheduled for each day of the opening phase, beginning on Thursday, July 18, at two of the indoor arenas at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. The first pair of contests are scheduled to get underway at 11.30 am, while each day’s final clashes begin no earlier than 7 pm. Fans are invited to attend all the fixtures and cheer on their favourite teams. Entrance is free of charge. In the preliminary round, the 16 participating under-21 national teams have been divided into four groups of four. Pool A consists of China, Morocco, Puerto Rico and hosts Bahrain, while Pool B is composed of Cuba, Argentina, Egypt and Korea. Pool C includes Russia, Iran, the Czech Republic and Tunisia, while Pool D features Italy, Canada, Brazil and Poland, who are the defending champions. On Thursday, action begins with Cuba taking on Korea and Iran facing Tunisia. They will be followed at 2 pm by Argentina playing Egypt and Russia battling the Czech Republic. At 4.30 pm, Morocco and China play in one game while Poland and Brazil go head to head in the other. That then leads to the day’s final two contests between Bahrain and Puerto Rico, and between Italy and Canada. The preliminaries continue until Saturday, July 20. Following the completion of the first round, the top two teams from each pool advance to round two where they will be split into two further pools of four (Pools E and F). The bottom two teams will be divided into another two pools of four (Pools G and H). A rest day will be held on Sunday, July 21, ahead of the start of the second round, which will be played from Monday to Wednesday, July 22 to 24. After the second phase, the top two teams from Pools E and F will qualify for the semi-finals, while the bottom two face off in a playoff to be classified from fifth to eighth. The top pair from Pools G and H will have a playoff for ninth to 12th classification, with the bottom two teams from the same pools moving onto a playoff for 13th to 16th. Following another rest day on Thursday, July 25, the semi-finals will take place on Friday, July 26, and then the bronze and gold medal matches will be held on Saturday, July 27. Classification contests will also take place both days. As part of the lead-up to the tournament, a joint-meeting was held Tuesday morning between the Bahrain Volleyball Association’s (BVA) executive committee and the control committee consisting of officials from the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). Executive committee chairman and BVA Vice-President Jehad Khalfan gave a warm welcome message to all those visiting Bahrain for the tournament, and conveyed the greetings of BVA President Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa. Also in attendance was control committee president Slobodan Milosevic from Serbia, who expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Kingdom of Bahrain for hosting the world championships. The committees went over the preparations for the event and spoke of the importance of working together to ensure its success. Following the meeting, members of both committees had a tour of the tournament venue, accompanied by BVA Secretary General and Tournament Director Feras Helwachi. Meanwhile, Bahrain’s junior national team played a friendly match late on Monday night against their counterparts from Iran, who are the current champions in Asia. The Bahrainis lost the match 1-3 (23-25, 25-17, 15-25, 14-25) but it was a beneficial tune-up for the home side to help them prepare for the world championships. All the participating national teams have arrived in Bahrain ahead of the world championship, along with officials from the FIVB. The FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019 is the 20th edition of the prestigious competition. Bahrain is hosting the event for the third time, having previously staged it in 1987 and 1997.