Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball Tournaments draw unveiled

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball Tournaments draw ceremony for both women's and men's competitions took place on Tuesday in Mies, Switzerland.

"We are looking forward to enjoying the world's best basketball players performing this coming July in the capital of Japan," FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis said in the ceremony.

"FIBA is confident for the smooth delivery of the Olympic Basketball Tournaments based on the close partnership with the IOC and the TOCOG as well as on its own, proven operational capacity during the last seven months," he added.

A new competition system has been put in place for the tournament and the nations were split into three groups of four teams each.

“The teams placed first and second in each group, and the two best third-placed teams in the Group Phase qualify for the Final Phase,” FIBA said in a statement.

Eight men’s teams -- Nigeria, Argentina, the USA, Iran, Japan, France, Spain, and Australia -- have already advanced to the Tokyo 2020 Men’s Olympic Basketball through the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

The remaining four places will be filled by the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQT) winners scheduled for June 29-July 4, in Canada's Victoria, Croatia's Split, Lithuania's Kaunas, Serbia's Belgrade.

Twelve women’s teams qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Men’s Olympic Basketball last year through the four FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

The men's tournament will run from July 25 to Aug. 7, with women's taking place on July 26-Aug. 8.

Initially scheduled for last July, the Games were among a host of sporting events postponed worldwide due to COVID-19.

The Olympic Games rescheduled from July 23 - Aug. 8.

*Men's tournament draws:

- Group A

Iran, France, USA and OQT Victoria winner (Canada, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, Uruguay)

- Group B

Australia, Nigeria, OQT Split winner (Brazil, Croatia, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Tunisia) and OQT Belgrade winner (Dominican Republic, Italy, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Serbia)

- Group C

Argentina, Japan, Spain and OQT Kaunas winner (Angola, Korea, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Venezuela)

* Women's tournament draws:

- Group A

Korea, Serbia, Canada and Spain

- Group B

Nigeria, Japan, France and USA

- Group C

Australia, Puerto Rico, China and Belgium