KUWAIT CITY, July 20: Kuwait's national volleyball team coach, Julian Alvarez, has selected a preliminary squad of 20 players for the upcoming 22nd Arab Championship for men’s teams, scheduled for November in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The last championship took place in 2018, with Egypt emerging as the victor.

Today marks the start of the second phase of training at Al-Ittihad Hall in the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Complex. This phase is overseen by Alvarez, his assistant Zaid Al-Kazemi, and Argentine fitness coach Jerome.

The players on the list preparing for the Arab Championship include:

Youssef Mandil, Saud Al-Duwaisan (Burgan),Muhammad Suwayd, Abdullah Fares (Al-Arabi),Rashid Anbar, Fahd Saad Yaqoub, Ahmed Al-Muneis, Ibrahim Mandil (Al-Qadisiya), Abdul Rahman Al-Mutawa, Ali Saadoun, Mishaal Al-Omar, Abdullah Al-Failakawi (Kazma), Abdullah Bouftin, Athbi Malik, Abdul Rahman Muhammad Kamel, Nawaf Al-Sanea, Omar Al-Anzi, Abdulaziz Najm, Muhammad Al-Dhafiri, Abdul Rahman Al-Otaibi (Kuwait SC).

Assistant coach Zaid Al-Kazemi emphasized that the team will undergo daily training for five weeks. The focus will be on enhancing physical fitness and refining individual and collective skills to elevate the overall technical and physical standards of the players. He added, "The technical staff has devised a long-term plan that will progress in stages up to the next Arab Championship."

Simultaneously, the youth volleyball team commenced training in Indonesia, having arrived there yesterday. It is preparing for the 22nd Asian Under-20 Championship, which will be held from July 23-31.

The delegation is led by Jassem Al-Failakawi, a member of the Kuwait Volleyball Association Board of Directors. The team includes Abdulaziz Al-Failakawi, the national team director, and a technical staff headed by national coach Jassem Al-Tarrawah, his Egyptian assistant Osama Madkour, and physiotherapist Moataz Ezz El-Din. The 12 players on the youth team are:

Fawaz Al-Mishaal, Ali Dashti, Barak Al-Nasser, Faisal Al-Sarraj, Hammoud Al-Masoud, Ahmed Al-Hamdan Abdulaziz Al-Anazi, Abdulaziz Al-Hashemi, Ahmed Al-Mutairi, Rashid Abdulkarim, Rashid Al-Nuaimi, Mahdi Hassan.

Khaled El Anzi

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff