BASKETBALL – Bahrain representatives Riffa are set to compete in the Ulaanbaatar stop of the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025.
The event at the Mongolian capital is scheduled to be held today and tomorrow, with 12 teams in the fray representing cities from around the world.
Riffa will be competing in the event with the quartet of Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, Vic Van Oosterwyck, and Caspar Augustijnen.
They will be playing in Pool B for the tournament’s preliminary round alongside Hangzhou of China and Doha of Qatar. Pool A features Liman of Serbia, Marijampole Mantinga of Lithuania, and Bordeaux of France. Pool C is composed of Chongming of China, Carolina of Puerto Rico, and Zavkhan of Mongolia. Pool D comprises Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy of Mongolia, Baskets Bonn of Germany, and Gargzdai of Lithuania.
Riffa open their campaign against Doha at 10.40am, and then face off with Hangzhou at 12.30pm. Both times are Bahrain.
The top two from each group at the end of a single round-robin move on to the quarter-finals.
Riffa are hitting the half-court for the second straight event on this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour. They also competed in the previous stop in Vienna, Austria, last week, where Bahraini Mohammed Kowayed was part of the team and became the first-ever player from the kingdom to compete in international basketball’s most prestigious 3x3 series.
Riffa did not make it past the opening phase in Vienna, losing both their games by just a point each. Kowayed is not on the roster for this competition but is with the Riffa delegation in Ulaanbaatar.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour features a 15-event calendar in 2025. Vienna marks the sixth meeting of the campaign, which is being held under the banner of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba).
Along with the Austrian capital, the series has also already made stops in Japan, China, the Netherlands, and France. After Ulaanbaatar, competitions will also be held in Hong Kong; Edmonton, Canada; Lausanne, Switzerland; Debrecen, Hungary; Shanghai and Shenzhen in China; Macau; and Abu Dhabi, the UAE; before heading to Bahrain for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 finale on November 21 and 22. There are also 20 lower-tier Challenger tournaments to be held throughout the season.
This year will be the first time ever that Bahrain will be staging the curtain-closer, which will crown this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour champions. The past two editions in the kingdom were the Manama Masters in 2023 and last year.
On both occasions, the competitions were held at a specially built venue at Bahrain Financial Harbour, offering a stunning backdrop to the exciting basketball action, which also included a women’s tournament, a slam dunk contest, and a three-point shootout.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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