Australia new champions in Asia Cup Basketball
The 2017 FIBA Asia Cup (formerly known as the FIBAA Asia Championship) was the 29th continental basketball championship in Asia. The tournament was organised by FIBA Asia. It took place from August 8 to 20, a week earlier from the initial scheduled date, in Lebanon. The Nouhad Nawfal Stadium hosted the tournament’s matches.
The tournament determined the composition of the joint FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup’ The top five teams in the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge earned an extra berth in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup for their respective sub-zones. Australia and New Zealand participated for the first time in this tournament.
All 16 teams who qualified for the tournament also qualified for the first round of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification for FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania. Australia won their first title by defeating Iran 79-56. South Korea finished third after beating New Zealand 80-71. China became fifth handing defeat to Lebanon by 81-80 points.
Sixteen nations took part in the competition. South Asia’s representative was India, which lost to Iran 54-101, to Jordan 54-61 and to Syria 78-87 in Group A. Basketball was once a popular sport in Bangladesh.
P. Rozario,
Dhaka.
