Fiba moves 3×3 Olympic qualifiers to 2021

MANILA, Philippines—With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021, Fiba has also decided to move the 3×3 Basketball Olympic Qualifying Tournaments to next year.

Fiba announced that it is pushing through with the 3×3 OQTs before August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippines had qualified for the 3×3 OQT, which was initially scheduled in Bangalore, India from March 18 to 22, after a strong run in 2018 and 2019.

Despite the delated, the national team pool players will still get paid their salaries under the directives of Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 league owner Ronald Mascariñas.

Joshua Munzon, Alvin Pasaol, Dylan Ababou, Troy Rike, Karl Dehesa, Santi Santillan, Franky Johnson, Chris De Chavez, and JR Alabanza, are all under the employment of the major 3×3 backer.

The quartet of Munzon, Pasaol, and the PBA’s CJ Perez and Mo Tautuaa will represent the Philippines in the OQT where the Philippines is grouped with Slovenia, France, Qatar, and the Dominican Republic in Pool C.

Apart from the OQT, Fiba also decided to scrap World Tour events for Prague, Lausanne, Los Angeles, and Nanjing, the Fiba 3×3 U23 Nations League, qualifiers for various Zone Cups, and the FIBA 3×3 U17 Zone Cups.