BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN representatives Riffa are set to compete today in the 3x3 International Quest to GRITness basketball tournament, part of the 2025 Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
The one-day event is taking place in Antwerp, Belgium, and it features 12 teams representing cities from around the world.
The competition also acts as a qualifier for the higher-tier Bucharest Masters, to be held on November 8 and 9 in Romania, also as part of this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
Riffa are set to compete with their hometown trio of Belgian nationals including Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, and Vic van Oosterwyck, along with Serbian Milos Antic.
They will be battling in the tournament’s preliminary round in Pool C alongside Haarlem and Amsterdam West, both from the Netherlands. Pool A features Liman from Serbia, Dusseldorf from Germany, and The Embassy 3x3 from Spain; Pool B comprises Vienna from Austria, London from the UK, and Lille from France; and Pool D includes Utrecht from the Netherlands, Bordeaux from France, and Liege from Belgium.
Riffa are scheduled to get their campaign underway against Amsterdam West at 2.20pm this afternoon. They will then take on Haarlem at 4.40pm.
Should they advance to the quarter-finals, those games are scheduled from 7.35pm, to be followed by the semi-finals starting 9.35pm, and then the final at 10.40pm. All times are Bahrain.
The 3x3 International Quest to GRITness marks Riffa’s third event this month on the Fiba 3x3 World Tour. They had earlier competed in the Sansar Challenger in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where they finished third overall; and then nearly a fortnight ago played in the Brasilia Challenger in Brazil, where they claimed fifth place.
Following their participation in Antwerp, Riffa will also be taking to the half-court at the Mataro Challenger in Spain, scheduled for this coming Saturday and Sunday. It will also be a qualifier for the higher-tier Macau Masters, scheduled for October 18 and 19.
Heading into today’s events, Riffa had earlier this year enjoyed success in a similar event in Antwerp. They were crowned champions of the Garrincha 3x3 International Lite Quest, held last May, when they won all five of their games en route to securing the title.
Riffa played that tournament with an all-Belgian cast of Donkor, Foerts, van Oosterwyck, and Caspar Augustijnen.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour is the premier street basketball series under the International Basketball Federation (Fiba). Events are of different levels, beginning with lower-tier Lite Quest and Quest competitions, and moving up to Challengers and top-tier Masters events.
Several Masters competitions have already taken place this year in Japan, China, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Canada, Switzerland, and Hungary; with others still to be held in Shanghai and Shenzhen in China; Macau; and Abu Dhabi in the UAE; and Bucharest, before heading to Bahrain for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour 2025 finale this November 21 and 22.
Bahrain had also hosted Manama Masters the past two seasons, and this year will be staging the series’ curtain-closer for the first time.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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