The Philippines gained an inside track at making the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in men’s 3×3 competition after climbing to 24th in the recent rankings released by FIBA.
Saturday’s staging of the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 Patriot’s Cup allowed the country to move ahead of Dominican Republic, Canada, Indonesia and Switzerland with 6,692,340 points.
Considered a level-eight tournament by FIBA, the Grand Finals which was won by Basilan gave the Philippines 434,452 to boost its chances of competing in the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers.
“This is a surprising development even for us,” said league owner Ronald Mascarinas. “We started the year at 60 and many said that making it to an Olympic Qualifying Tournament was improbable.”
Three Olympic slots are at stake in the OQT set March 2020 while another is given to the winner of the Universality-driver OQT slated a month later.
Host Japan is assured of an Olympic berth along with the top three countries after the FIBA cutoff on Nov. 1.
The Philippines must stay within the top 24 rankings before the said date in order to qualify for the OQT.
Basilan is scheduled to compete in the FIBA 3×3 Jeddah Masters in October while runner-up Balanga will play in the Bucharest Challenger later this month.
The 3×3 league returns in September for its third conference that will be known as the Magiting Cup. (JONAS TERRADO)
