MEDELLIN (Colombia) - The Colombian Basketball Federation (FCB) wants to get back into the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Olympic Games. Affiliated to FIBA in 1939, the FCB will have many challenges this year, with qualifications to international tournaments accomplished and others to achieve, the start of the National Basketball Cup (CNB) to increase the development of the country's players and supply the National Teams in all its categories and the arrival of FIBA and the NBA with Basketball Without Borders (BWB).

The FCB made the launch and started the CNB in the Senior Men's category, a world-leading platform for Colombian basketball. The competition is the present and future of basketball in the South American country. It was born in 2018 as a platform for clubs and players to have a projection space with a high level of competition. The quick start of the tournament goes through cities that never thought they would have a sports show and a hobby for basketball as Pereira, Cogua, Istmina, Cúcuta, and others who already have the experience as Armenia, San Andrés, Bucaramanga, Quibdó, Villavicencio and Bogotá.

"The tournament is a complement and preamble to the U21 Development League, Professional Basketball League and the national teams. It is the second year in a row that we are at the forefront of this process. These 160 athletes are the base that will serve us to look at the new players for the South American U21 Championship, which will be played in our country and for the senior category, which is committed to start the FIBA AmeriCup Qualifiers in November," said the President of the Colombian Basketball Federation, Jorge Armando García.

Slowly the CNB has been touring the national territory giving viewers, and the general public, the online monitoring of each of the games with Stats controlled by FIBA, and streaming on the Fecolcesto YouTube channel, tools applied so that everyone knows the development of national basketball. The tournament takes place in four conferences with 14 teams and is played throughout the national territory for three months. They are high performance athletes in the senior category, base that will serve the Federation to look at the new players for Colombian basketball in order to conform the national teams that will be participating in the South American U21 Championship of Tunja, Boyacá, and the first window of the FIBA AmeriCup 2021 Qualifiers, that will begin on November.

For many of the achievements of the Colombian Federation in recent months, the Boyacá Chapter of Editors and Broadcasters awarded the Best Sports Directive to the President, Jorge Armando García, for the management of the FCB where he has managed to advance and grow with the country's basketball, for its outstanding performances in the Bolivarian Games, South American Games and Central American and Caribbean Games and for the qualifications to the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Minsk, Belarus and the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand. For having managed to play the Qualifiers to the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and for achieving hosting rights for the AmeriCup, the South American Women’s Championship and the South American U15 Women’s Championship.

"The Federation has undergone a transformation of great development, we have been able to have successes that had not been seen in the history of Colombian basketball, like the qualification to World Cups, being champions of the Bolivarian Games, the Central American and Caribbean Games, and the South American Games, while hosting international tournaments in Colombia,” added the leader.

"Expectations are high, we believe that everything the Federation does is to get into a World Cup or the Olympic Games, those are primary objectives and has been recognized by FIBA through the Development Program. In women's basketball we have qualified to the U17 and U19 World Cups, and we have been in all the events of the Olympic cycle in recent years. In men’s basketball we have already qualified to the FIBA AmeriCup Qualifiers. Now what we have to consolidate is the qualification to the FIBA AmeriCup 2021 and to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. We are in that process and I think we will achieve it because we have the full support of FIBA, National Sports and the Colombian Olympic Committee."

Another of the important moments of this year for the Federation, will be the arrival of the Basketball Without Borders in the month of June24 to 27 in the Coliseum Iván de Bedout in Medellin, this being the first time that the NBA and the FIBA have made a global event in the country.

BWB América 2019 will gather more than 60 promising young players from North and South America to learn directly from coaches and players of the NBA and FIBA and compete against the best players in the region.

"Colombia welcomes the NBA and FIBA and the future of basketball of America. We are delighted to host this great event that will put the focus on Colombia. They have given us the confidence, we have already signed the agreement and we are ready to receive it in a thriving city, which develops more basketball in Colombia. We want these moments to serve as engines to fulfill our dream of being in a World Cup or an Olympic Game," concluded said Jorge García.

FIBA