Philippines, 2 other countries to host 2016 FIBA OQT

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">MANILA, Philippines - World basketball governing body FIBA named the Philippines as one of the host countries for the 2016 World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for men.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgJSBcDorG6HxyKUZjK7byvHCk1lFAGO6VohhhMDj8Q2xdn5xzL-cXcvoIhENDqIpONMp6_c6GVg4891oxYRcXSzWTnX0Ygp3kgrrWccal7QwjlAd9zWLM3SQWLQ2Vx0OqBxqQmh8wiy-/s1600/philippines-fiba.jpg" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="FIBA awards Philippines and 2 other countries hosting rights for Olympics Qualifiers. " border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgJSBcDorG6HxyKUZjK7byvHCk1lFAGO6VohhhMDj8Q2xdn5xzL-cXcvoIhENDqIpONMp6_c6GVg4891oxYRcXSzWTnX0Ygp3kgrrWccal7QwjlAd9zWLM3SQWLQ2Vx0OqBxqQmh8wiy-/s640/philippines-fiba.jpg" title="FIBA awards Philippines and 2 other countries hosting rights for Olympics Qualifiers. " width="560" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FIBA awards Philippines and 2 other countries hosting rights for Olympics Qualifiers. <br />Photo Credit: FIBA</td></tr></tbody></table>The annoucement was made through FIBA social media accounts Tuesday night, January 19, 2016.<br /><br />Philippines will join Italy and Serbia for the tournament hosting on July 4-10.<br /><br /><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Philippines, Italy & Serbia will host the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (4-10 July)! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIBAOQT?src=hash" rel="nofollow">#FIBAOQT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RoadToRio?src=hash" rel="nofollow">#RoadToRio</a> <a href="https://t.co/pc7dCAH2nR" rel="nofollow">pic.twitter.com/pc7dCAH2nR</a></div>— FIBA (@FIBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBA/status/689457023646208001" rel="nofollow">January 19, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></center><br />The 2016 OQT will qualify three teams to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The format will consist of 18 national teams divided into three tournaments of six teams each, with the winning team from each event qualifying for the Olympics.<br /><br />The Philippine basketball team will be trying to earn its first appearance at the Olympic basketball tournament since 1972.<br /><br /><center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="tl">YES!! PHILIPPINES TO HOST FIBA OLYMPIC QUALIFYING IN JULY. LABAN PILIPINAS! PUSO!</div>— Manny V. Pangilinan (@iamMVP) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamMVP/status/689458273443938304" rel="nofollow">January 19, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></center><br />Our national team Gilas Pilipinas will face five of these teams in Manila: Canada , Mexico , Puerto Rico , France, Serbia, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, Angola, Tunisia, Senegal, New Zealand, Iran, Japan, Latvia, Croatia and Lebanon.<br /><br />Meanwhile, FIBA also announced that France will host the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament from June 13-19.</div>

Philippines, 2 other countries to host 2016 FIBA OQT

MANILA, Philippines - World basketball governing body FIBA named the Philippines as one of the host countries for the 2016 World Olympic Qu...

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