FIBA - Twelve teams vying for London await OQT draw

CARACAS (Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - An important step on the road to this summer's London Games will be taken on Tuesday with the draw for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Caracas, Venezuela.

Twelve teams will do battle in the Venezuelan capital from 2-8 July as they aim to book the three remaining places on offer for the Olympics.

Going into the hat for Tuesday's draw are: Angola, Dominican Republic, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Russia and hosts Venezuela.

These 12 national sides will find out their opponents for the Preliminary Round of the OQT, which consists of four groups of three teams and is played in a round robin format.

The two best-placed teams in each Preliminary Round group will advance to the Quarter-Finals. The winners of the two Semi-Finals will automatically qualify for London, while the two losing Semi-Finalists will play for the third and final Olympic berth on offer.

The draw will take place at 17:00 local time (22:30 CET) and you can follow it live on draws.fiba.com and watch it on fibatv.

The schedule for the OQT will be:
2-4 July: Preliminary Round
5 July: Rest day
6 July: Quarter-Finals
7 July: Semi-Finals
8 July: Finals

The nine teams already qualified for the 2012 Olympic Basketball Tournament are: hosts Great Britain, 2010 FIBA World Champions USA, along with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Spain and Tunisia who qualified through the 2011 FIBA Continental Championships.

FIBA