London 2012 Basketball Groups Drawn
The draws for the London 2012 Olympic basketball tournaments have been completed, confirming the Group Stages for the Men’s and Women’s tournaments, with the Great Britain men’s team set to face European champions and Beijing silver medallists Spain.
Meanwhile, Olympic champions and world number one USA will play Beijing bronze medallists and world number three Argentina.
In the Women’s tournament, current European champions and 2008 Olympic bronze medallists Russia will face silver medallists Australia, while Olympic champions and world number one USA will face current Asia champions China.
Great Britain’s Women’s team will play world number 2 Australia in their first game.
The Men’s and Women’s Olympic basketball tournaments will each feature 12 teams.
For the Men’s competition, nine teams have already qualified for London 2012 with the remaining three places to be decided at an Olympic Qualifying tournament in Venezuela from 2nd to 8th July.
For the Women’s competition, seven teams have already qualified with the remaining five places to be decided at an Olympic Qualifying tournament in Turkey the week before.
The draw, hosted by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in Rio, saw teams drawn into two groups for the Preliminary rounds of the Men’s and Women’s tournament.
In the men’s tournament, Group A will feature Argentina, France, Tunisia, USA and two remaining qualifiers.
Group B will include Australia, Brazil, China, Great Britain, Spain and one qualifier.
In the Women’s tournament, Group A will involve Angola, China, USA, and three remaining qualifiers.
Group B features Australia, Brazil, Great Britain and Russia, plus two remaining qualifiers.
Debbie Jevans, Director of Sport at LOCOG said: ‘The Olympic Basketball tournaments will see some of the biggest basketball stars in the world come to London to compete for Gold. Today’s draw gives us a glimpse of some of the exciting encounters, world-class players and top teams we’ll see in action this summer.’
Great Britain Men’s captain Drew Sullivan added: ‘When you’re involved an Olympic Games, you know you’re playing against the best of the best, so there isn’t such a thing as an easy draw. As a nation we are extremely proud of making it this far but that’s only part of the goals we’ve laid out for ourselves. We’ll continue to try and improve with a strong training camp once we are all together. We understand the challenge ahead of us and it is something we are all looking forward to.’
