TUN - Tunisia target Olympic berth at Africa Championship

TUNIS (2011 FIBA Africa Championship) - Tunisia men's national team head coach Adel Tlatli has revealed that booking the country's first trip to the Olympic Games will be the number one goal for his team when they take part in the FIBA Africa Championship in August.

The national team will come together on Monday in Tunis before getting their training camp underway in Ain Drahem for eight days (21-29 June). They will then return to the capital city in July (1-6).

Tlatli has said a thorough programme is in store for the players, to ensure they give themselves the best possible chances of qualifying for next year's London Olympics.

"The technical staff has developed an intensive programme of preparations to achieve the goal of qualifying for the London Olympics," he explained.

After their preparations on home soil, Tunisia will go abroad, first to Turkey (9-16 July) where they will train and take part in a tournament featuring Azerbaijan, Philippines, Iran, Portugal and Morocco.

The Tunisians will then head to Jordan to participate in another tournament (31 July-5 August) featuring Egypt, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Angola and Belgium.

The conclusion of the preparations are still to be confirmed with the possibility of playing a tournament in Paris (8-15 August) or Turkey (7-13 August).

Tunisia have been drawn in Group D at the FIBA Africa Championship which will take place in Madagascar from 17 to 28 August.

Their Preliminary Round opponents will be Togo, Central African Republic and Rwanda.

The winner of the FIBA Africa Championship automatically qualifies for the 2012 Olympic Basketball Tournament.

Teams that finish second and third will earn berths for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

FIBA