Gold Coast (Australia) - FIBA's regional office in Oceania improved even further on the historic participation numbers in 2018 and marked a 41.83 percent increase with a total of 130,818 recorded participants in 2019.

The year-end report prepared by FIBA Oceania Development Manager Annie La Fleur included Fiji, Guam, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Timor Leste and Vanuatu in the final tabulation.

"It was a great year in terms of our participation numbers with more 3x3 events being registered, the inclusion of 3x3 in the Pacific Games was a good development too. A lot of activity in Oceania in preparation for the games which also made a lot of them eligible for the 2020 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup," shared La Fleur.

"We also had more community visits with our accelerated group - they are the Federations funded by FIBA as well through our Australia's Pacific Sports Partnerships program," she added.

Driving the community and Youth recruitment programs is the Basketball For Good strategy under the direction of FIBA Oceania Basketball For Good Manager, Peter Topp.

Topp excitedly shared the further expansion of the program in Papua New Guinea and Fiji in 2020.

"We're working with Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea to expand to more regions in PNG and it will be done through their development officer, Jordan Sere and managed by their Executive Officer, Nick Daroa," said Topp.

Papua New Guinea topped charts with a total of 70,875 recorded participants, a massive 343.27 percent increase compared to 2018 while Fiji came in second with 28,081 participants.  The other countries included in the report are Tahiti, Vanuatu, Samoa, Guam and Timor Leste registering, 8,509, 8,032, 7,415, 4,785 and 3121 participants respectively.

"For Fiji, we were provided additional funds for them and they will be able to go to the Western area of Fiji and the Federation is excited about the opportunity to reengage with the western region. I am confident that they will be able to grow the game in that region," he added.

Basketball For Good programs in the Pacific is supported by FIBA and Australia's Pacific Sports Partnerships Program.

La Fleur, shared the vision of the regional office with the new cycle of FIBA kicking in after the World Congress during the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China in August of 2019.

"With the new strategic plan for the next four years, we have given ourselves a target of over one million participants over the next few years. We plan to improve our numbers every year and try to reach out to as many areas and communities," La Fleur said.

FIBA