Italy, Serbia, Philippines to host Olympic qualifying

MIES — Italy, Serbia and the Philippines will host the three Olympic men's basketball qualifying tournaments in July.

FIBA, the international governing body of the sport, announced the hosts on yesterday. Only the winners of the tournaments will advance to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The draw for the three tournaments will be conducted on Jan. 26.

The United States, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, Lithuania and China have already qualified.

Teams from Serbia, France, Greece, Italy, the Czech Republic, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Angola, Tunisia, Senegal, Philippines, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Latvia, Croatia and Turkey will take part in the three qualifying tournaments from July 4-10.

Italy will stage the tournament in Turin, Serbia in Belgrade and the Philippines in Manila.

The 12 teams that will compete in the women's qualifying tournament in the French city of Nantes from 13-19 June are Argentina, Belarus, Cameroon, China, Cuba, France, Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, Turkey and Venezuela. The top five teams will qualify for Rio.