CHN - FIBA delegation visits Wukesong arena

BEIJING (Olympic Games) - A FIBA delegation has visited today the Wukesong arena in Beijing that will host the Olympic basketball tournaments in 2008.

The Wukesong arena will only be used for the basketball tournaments for men and women during the Olympics and will have a capacity for 18.000 spectators.

The arena has been designed specifically for basketball in close cooperation with the FIBA Study Center.

The FIBA delegation was impressed with the work progress of the construction work. Substantial work still has to be done to open the venue.

"Wukesong will offer a splendid home for basketball during the 2008 Olympics," said FIBA Secretary General and IOC member Patrick Baumann.

"The construction works were supposed to finish in October, but the couple of months delay will have no effect on the proper preparations for the Olympics. We are confident that this magnificent arena will be fully functional until our test event in April 2008."

The FIBA delegation consisted of Patrick Baumann, FIBA Study Center Director Aldo Vitale, FIBA Sports Director Lubomir Kotleba, FIBA Central Board members Mabel Ching from Hong Kong and Jose Luis Saez from Spain as well as BOCOG basketball competition manager Du Juan.

FIBA Sports Director Lubomir Kotleba also visited the training sites for the basketball tournaments and was very satisfied with the high standard of the facilities.

"The training sites are of outstanding quality. We could even play some of our top world competitions there."

FIBA