Bahrain set for Olympic basketball pre-qualifiers

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain have been drawn in a tough Group A for the preliminary phase of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament for Asia.

The draw was held yesterday by global basketball’s governing body, and Bahrain’s senior men’s national basketball team have been pitted against South Korea, Chinese-Taipei and India.

Group B in Asia comprises Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Syria.

The Bahrainis are looking to qualify for their first-ever men’s basketball tournament at the Olympics in Paris next year.

There are five FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments set to take place, including one apiece for Asia, Africa and the Americas, and two for Europe.

Each event will be played between August 12 and 20 in dedicated host countries.

The Asian competition’s venue has yet to be determined by FIBA, while the African event will take place in Nigeria, the Americas in Argentina, and one European tournament in Turkey with the other co-hosted by Poland and Estonia.

There are 40 nations in all vying for spots in Paris.

The field comprises the 28 countries that participated in the Second Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers and did not qualify for the 32-team World Cup to be staged this summer in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.

The other 12 countries are among the highest-ranked national teams that did not qualify for the Second Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.

The winners of the five tournaments earn spots in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, to be held in 2024.

Bahrain are underdogs heading into the continental Olympic pre-qualifiers.

They are the lowest-ranked team in their group on the FIBA World Ranking for Men.

South Korea are 38th in the world, Chinese-Taipei 69th, India 82nd and Bahrain 84th.

The Bahrainis are also currently 16th in Asia but second amongst the six GCC teams behind only Saudi (68th) and ahead of Qatar (89th), the UAE (106th), Kuwait (120th) and Oman (150th).