Tehran, Sept 18, 2016: The FIBA Asia Challenge 2016 closed today with Iran winning the title at Korea’s expense, 77-47. Joining the finalists on the podium were Jordan, who defeated fellow West Asian side Iraq, 94-72, for the third place.
Rounding off the top five teams of the tournament were the Chinese, who turned back Japan in their classification game 75-67.
In the day’s other classification game, India punched successfully above their weight and defeated Chinese Taipei, 80-68, to take seventh place.
Iran, Jordan and Iraq now have earned West Asia sub-zone three extra berths in the FIBA Asia Cup 2017. Similarly, Korea and China earned East Asia sub-zone two extra berths. This brings the total number of West Asia berths to five given their allotted allocation of two slots. East Asia now has a total of four berths in addition to their two allotted berths.
Joining the five West Asian teams and four East Asian teams next year will be one teach each from Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Gulf sub-zone’s lone berth has already gone to Qatar after they won the GCC Championship earlier this year.
Australia and New Zealand, who hitherto were playing in the FIBA Oceania, will also debut in the FIBA Asia Cup next year. The host country rounds off the sixteen-team fray. China will enter the the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 as the defending champions. The Philippines and Iran joined them on the podium last year in the FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha-Hunan.
The top 14 teams from the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 will automatically play in Division A in the 2017 FIBA New Competition System. They will be joined two by additional teams which will be decided by FIBA’s Asia Regional office. —- FIBA
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