Fernando Duro named new Head Coach of Venezuela for Americas Qualifiers

CARACAS (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) – Argentine Fernando Duro will take over the Head Coach position of the Venezuelan National Team, when the country begins its qualification campaign to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.

“I'm grateful for this opportunity and I’m highly motivated to keep giving standing to a country that's one of the ones that have grown the most in the Americas in recent years. Today, Venezuela has an international-level importance, so this is a great challenge for me, and the bar’s really high. It’s just like I wanted. Not only will I try to develop the Senior team, I will also collaborate with the growth of the new generation of Venezuelan basketball,” said Duró.

Duro will fill the vacancy left by fellow Argentine Nestor “Che” Garcia, who led the team in the 2013-2017 period and coached the team to a continental championship in the FIBA AmeriCup 2015 and two South American Championships in 2014 and 2016.

Duro’s main objective as Head Coach will be to qualify the Venezuelan team to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.

“From the start, on one hand we’ll try to call young players so that they start seeing how this process will start, and so that they see more experienced players that have reached milestones with the national team. On the other, the system will allow us to rotate players. We’ll try that they understand that they’ll all have the opportunity to play at any given moment. Without a doubt, we’ll have a job that's more complex to what was done before; or only done when you were preparing for an eight-day tournament. It’ll be an even elimination round, I hope that we’ll develop a time process. A lot of work is coming our way. We want everyone to feel committed to wear the jersey,” concluded Duro.

Venezuela was drawn into Group B of Americas Qualifiers along with Chile, Brazil, and Colombia and will begin its qualification campaign on November 24 against Colombia.

FIBA