Team South Africa to face Spain and Croatia at Youth Olympic Games

Youth Olympic Games – basketball draw results

As we recently noted, the first Youth Olympic Games (“YOG”) will be held in Singapore this year, and will have basketball as one of the sports. The tournament will use FIBA’s relatively new “FIBA 33” format to introduce it to the global audience.

The draw for the tournament at the Games has now been held. South Africa was drawn in Group D along with Spain, Croatia, the Philippines and the US Virgin Islands (in the Boys grouping). The full draw is as follows:

BOYS
Group A: A1 Serbia; A2 Greece; A3 Puerto Rico; A4 India; A5 New Zealand.
Group B: B1 Argentina; B2 Iran; B3 Lithuania; B4 Panama; B5 Egypt.
Group C: C1 Israel; C2 Singapore; C3 Turkey; C4 USA; C5 Central African Republic.
Group D: D1 Philippines; D2 Spain; D3 South Africa; D4 US Virgin Islands; D5 Croatia.

GIRLS
Group A: A1 Korea; A2 Vanuatu; A3 Ivory Coast; A4 Russia; A5 Canada.
Group B: B1 Belarus; B2 Singapore; B3 USA; B4 Angola; B5 Germany.
Group C: C1 Brazil, C2 Team to be decided; C3 Mali; C4 Czech Republic; C5 China.
Group D: D1 Japan; D2 Australia; D3 France; D4 Italy; D5 Chile.

As far as we know, there is still no official word from Basketball South Africa as to who will be representing South Africa in the Games or how the team will be chosen, or even whether our team will attend. As a huge opportunity for our young players, let’s hope that we send a talented team to compete and bring the much-needed experience back to our shores.

The YOG will take place from 14th to 26th August. The event will bring together 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 and coming from all 205 National Olympic Committees to compete in the 26 sports on the London 2012 Olympic Games programme.

You can read the full article on FIBA’s website here

Tags: Basketball, competition, fiba 33, South Africa, team, yog youth olympic games