Azerbaijan to face world's best in 3x3 Basketball

The International Federation of Basketball announced yesterday the results of the draw for the men’s and women’s 3x3 Basketball competitions at the Baku 2015 European Games. As host nation, Azerbaijan will be represented in both competitions, and will be playing the Netherlands (currently ranked number one in the world), Switzerland and Greece in the women’s Group A, while the men will be competing against Andorra, the Czech Republic and Switzerland in Group D.

In the women’s competition, Group B will feature the Czech Republic, Belgium, Turkey and Ukraine; Spain, Slovenia, Ireland and Slovakia will meet in Group C, while Romania, Russia, Israel and Lithuania make up group D.

In the men’s event, Group A includes Slovenia, Romania, Lithuania and Israel; Group B will feature Russia, Spain, Turkey and Belgium, while Estonia, Serbia, Italy and Greece make up Group C.

Following the round-robin group phase, all teams will progress to the direct elimination phase, where they will be seeded based on their final placing in the group stage.

Mr Pierce O'Callaghan, Director of Sport at Baku 2015, said: "As one of the new and innovative sports included in the Baku 2015 programme, there will be a huge amount of interest in 3x3 Basketball. Competition to be crowned the first ever European Games champions is sure to be intense.

"Everything is now in place to stage great Games, and we are delighted to have the best teams competing here in Baku this summer."

The 3x3 Basketball tournaments will take place over four days from 23 June at the temporary Basketball Arena in Baku, which has capacity to host 2,000 spectators.

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