FIBA Decides Venues For 2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments

There was a FIBA Central Board meeting held in Madrid, Spain last weekend and one of the subjects on the agenda was who would host the 2012 Men's and Women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.  

The OQT's are the last chance venues for national basketball squads who wish to play in London in a few months to win those last available spots in the Olympic b-ball tournament which is scheduled to run during the Games from July 28-August 12..

FIBA awarded the hosting venues for the men's OQT to Venezuela who beat out finalist Lithuania for the honor.   On the women's side Turkey beat out the Czech Republic to host the OQT.. 

The Men's Olympic Qualifying tournament will happen July 2-8 in Caracas and the teams vying for those last three spots in addition to the host Venezuelans are  Angola, Dominican Republic, Macedonia, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Russia. 

The women's tournament will be held June 25-July 1 in the Turkish capital of Ankara to determine who gets the final five spots available on the women's side. 

In addition to the homestanding Turks who are trying to play their way into their first ever Olympic games on the women's side, they  will also be joined by Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Korea, Mali, Mozambique, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. 

Mozambique and Puerto Rico replaced Cuba and Senegal, who qualified for it in zone Olympic qualifying tournament play but withdrew from the Women's OQT.

At any rate, it will be a tough assignment to play though this tournament just to get your Olympic spot, then if you're fortunate enough to get those tickets to London, get ready to play in the Olympic tournament.

But they are going to give it their best shot in late June and early July.