Ferns In Good Company
Tagged in: Tall Ferns
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New Zealand is now one of seven countries that have qualified directly for women’s basketball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Russia became the latest team to progress when they won the FIBA European Championships last weekend. Beaten finalists Spain join Belarus, Latvia and Czech Republic in the 12-team pre-Olympic repechage tournament to compete for the five remaining spots at Beijing.
The NZ Tall Ferns finished runners-up to world champions Australia at last month’s FIBA Oceania Championships, thus earning the zone berth at the Olympics.
The countries qualified for Beijing (with world rankings) so far are …
Hosts – China (10th)
World Champions – Australia (second)
Africa – Mali (31st)
Americas – United States (first)
Asia – Korea (seventh)
Europe – Russia (third)
Oceania – New Zealand (17th)
Pre-Olympic tournament – Five teams
The repechage tournament in June will feature two teams from Africa (Senegal and Angola), three from the Americas (Cuba, Brazil and Argentina), two from Asia (Japan and Chinese Taipei), the four from Europe and Fiji from Oceania.
