Muscat: In preparation for its participation in the 11th Men's and Women's Beach Handball World Cup, the Oman national beach handball team continues to achieve victories in its current external camp in the Thai capital, Bangkok. These preparations will continue until June 14, before heading to the Chinese city of Pingtan, where the tournament will be held from June 18 to 23.
In their latest friendly match, Oman registered their third victory against Thailand by 2-0. The first set ended at 24-20, while Oman maintained their lead in the second set at 16-12. This victory comes after two previous victories over the same team, where the second friendly match ended with a score of 22-14 and 20-16 in favour of Oman and the first match ended with a score of 14-8 and 23-22.
Oman national coach Hamood al Hassani is keen to try out new methods and tactics in the friendly matches to get the players used to them in preparation for the official matches in the tournament. Al Hassani is also trying out all the players to assess their levels and their application of the instructions and playing style.
Oman will play three matches in the World Cup within the first group, where they will face Hungary on June 18, and then play against Australia and Denmark on June 19. The technical staff, led by coach Hamood al Hassani and his assistant Jaber al Balushi, is aiming to achieve honourable results in the tournament, in which Oman team is participating for the eighth time in its history.
Group two includes the teams of Tunisia, Spain, China and Brazil, while group three includes Puerto Rico, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia.
Group four includes the teams of Qatar, USA, Uruguay and Germany, and the top three teams from each group in the preliminary round qualify for the main round of the championship.
After the end of the Thailand camp, the team will head to the city of Pingtan for an external camp for four days before the start of the tournament, where it will play several friendly matches with the participating teams to select the appropriate formation and tactics that they will play in the tournament.
These preparations are the last opportunity for the technical staff to adopt the final formation and strategies that will lead the team towards achieving outstanding results in the world championship.
The technical staff of the Oman national team has reduced the number of players from 12 to 10 players based on a decision by the International Handball Federation. The following players have been approved for participation: Huthaifa al Siyabi, Bashar al Hinai, Muhanad al Zarafi, Abdulhakeem al Siyabi, Mahmoud al Wahhabi, Ali al Jamui, Ahmed al Ghaylani, Mahdi al Sulaimani, Said al Hasani and Yasser al Harthy.
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