From June 29 to July 4, four cities – Croatia’s Split, Canada’s Victoria, Lithuania’s Kaunas and Serbia’s Belgrade – will host Olympics qualifying tournaments. These tournaments will be used to determine four places for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Format
24* national teams will take part in 4 tournaments – 6 teams in each. The winner of each tournament gets a trip to Tokyo.
In each tournament 6 teams are divided into 2 groups. The top 2 teams advance from the group to a playoff consisting of a semifinal and a final. Only one team from the tournament will be eligible to participate in the 2020 Olympics.
* Team Senegal withdrew from Olympics qualification because it tested positive for COVID-19. The Puerto Rican and Italian teams automatically advanced to the semifinals.
United League Players on National Teams
Fifteen United League basketball players will participate in Olympics qualification.
Due to the epidemiological situation in order to protect the health and safety of players, coaches and officials FIBA decided to hold all games in “bubbles” – closed campuses.
The VTB United League has the most diverse representation in the Russian national team: Evgeny Baburin, Artem Komolov, Ivan Strebkov, Andrey Vorontsevich and Anton Astapkovich (all from Nizhny Novgorod), Mikhail Kulagin (Enisey), Ivan Ukhov and Nikita Kurbanov (both from CSKA), Timofey Mozgov (Khimki) and Vladimir Ivlev (PARMA). VTB Youth League player Anton Kardanakhishvili (CSKA-2) also plays for the national team. During group stage in Split the Russian national team meets with Mexican (June, 30) and German (July, 1) teams.
Germany’s Johannes Voigtmann from CSKA is in the same group as Russia. The German national team will play against Mexico (June 29) and Russia (July 1).
The second group is Croatia with Zeljko Sakic from Avtodor. The hosts will play against Brazil (June 30) and Tunisia (July 1).
The Lithuanian team in Kaunas, which includes Mindaugas Kuzminskas from Lokomotiv-Kuban and Marius Grigonis from CSKA, will play in the group stage against Venezuela (June 29) and South Korea (July 1).
Also in Kaunas, the Polish national team, one of whose players is Mateusz Ponitka (Zenit), is in a different group. The Poles will face Angola (June 29) and Slovenia (July 1).
Full list of players called up to the national teams for the Olympics qualification:
Avtodor: Zeljko Sakic
Zenit: Mateusz Ponitka
Enisey: Mikhail Kulagin
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Mindaugas Kuzminskas
Nizhny Novgorod: Evgeny Baburin, Artem Komolov, Ivan Strebkov, Andrey Vorontsevich, Anton Astapkovich
PARMA: Vladimir Ivlev
Khimki: Timofey Mozgov
CSKA: Ivan Ukhov, Nikita Kurbanov, Marius Grigonis, Johannes Vogtmann
National League Matchday Schedule
June 29
17:30 Germany vs Mexico
16:30 Poland vs Angola
19:30 Lithuania vs Venezuela
June 30
17:30 Mexico vs Russia
21:00 Brazil vs Croatia
July 1
17:30 Russia vs Germany
16:30 Slovenia vs Poland
19:30 South Korea vs Lithuania
21:00 Croatia vs Tunisia
* Moscow time
