SANTO DOMINGO — Besides the success achieved by their national team in 5x5 basketball, the Dominican Basketball Federation (FEDOMBAL) has set its sights on the 3x3 discipline as an effective way to expand their sport in the Dominican Republic and getting medals in the modality that will have its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020.

In 2018 the Federation celebrated 89 tournaments throughout the country. These are events that not only are of a highly competitive quality, but also present an entertainment option for the community, due to the simple facilities required and the dynamics of the game.

This year the sports programming for the 3x3 didn't even wait for the Holy Week to be over. In fact, there were simultaneous tournaments in La Vega, San Cristóbal, Cotui, Santo Domingo, Papalo, Jarabacoa and Barahona — all with great success. They even celebrated their first 3x3 beach tournament in Rogelio beach, in Gaspar Hernández, and next week they’ll have their National U18 tournament for both sexes.

“We have both focuses, expanding and qualifying to the international qualifying tournaments,” said Elka Jiménez, Fedombal’s National 3x3 Coordinator, to FIBA.basketball.

“We're playing and preparing the staff to manage this platform and the rules to try and do things as they're supposed [to be done]. In the meantime, we're managing a very limited budget, but we're doing our best effort,” said Jiménez.

The coordinator also mentioned that the 3x3 focus has more and more enthusiasm and participation at a national level, and that its development plans include the schools’ sector.

At an international level, Fedombal is already preparing for the 3x3 U18 World Cup that will take place in Mongolia in July. There, Dominicana will be a part of Group B, along Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The U23 women’s team will participate in their respective World Cup in October, in the city of Xian, China.

The national senior men’s 3x3 team took the silver medal in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia.

In the combined world ranking, Fedombal occupies position #30 in the 3x3, being #39 in the men’s and #26 in the women’s ranking. They’re currently #20 in men’s U23 ranking and #23 in the women’s ranking of that same category. Meanwhile, the men's U18 are 15th and the women’s U18 are 32nd.

FIBA