The Philippines was named as one of the 20 nations that will compete in the 2019 FIBA 3X3 Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will take place on March 2020 in India.
The FIBA made the announcement on Friday evening in Utsunomiya, Japan.
“We are extremely happy with this development,” said Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 league owner Ronald Mascariñas. “But we could not have done it without the combined efforts of everyone.
“We would like to thank the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas headed by chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan and president Al Panlilio, the numerous private promoters, all the players from Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3, and, of course, the Filipino people who supported us for the last nine months.”
The Philippines will be slotted in Pool C in the OQT, which has three available tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at stake. It will be joined by Slovenia, France, Qatar, and the Dominican Republic.
Composing Pool A are Mongolia, Poland, Brazil, Turkey, and Spain. Meanwhile, Pool B will have USA, Lithuania, Belgium, South Korea, and New Zealand. Pool D, on the other hand, has the Netherlands, Latvia, Canada, Croatia, and host India.
Gaining automatic berths in the Olympics are Serbia, Russia, China, and Japan.
Still, it was a long road to India for the country.
Back in February, the men’s side of the Philippines was ranked at a lowly 59. But ever since the league opened its curtains last February 16, the country’s rankings have steadily risen.
The first-ever season of Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 had three conference — namely the President’s Cup, the Patriot’s Cup, and the Magiting Cup. All had level-seven tournament ratings, with level-10 as the highest possible rating. The country also hosted the world’s first-ever Super Quest last April, a level eight tourney; and the country’s first-ever Challenger tournament last September 7, a level nine event.
Moreover, the club teams from the league competed in a World Tour Masters and multiple Challenger tourneys — including the Doha and Jeddah Masters and Challenger tournaments in Moscow, Haining, Poitiers, Xiongan, Sukhbaatar, and Kaohsiung.
To sustain the country’s push to the OQT, the league put up a 14-leg invitational tourney, the MelMac Cup to close out the season.
The national team will be composed of two players from the top 10 and two players within the top 50 or have the minimum number of ranking points.
As a tune-up for the national team, the 2020 season of Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 will open this January.
“The journey is far from over as the goal is to not just make it to the OQT. The endgame is to make it to Tokyo.
“We are going all out to prepare our national team for this and we hope that everyone joins us in this journey,” bared Mascariñas.
