BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN’S Seef barged into the knockout stages last night of the Sofia Open 3x3 Palms Lite Quest, currently being played in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Seef split their two games in the preliminary round to punch their ticket to the round-of-16. They first suffered a last-second 12-13 loss against Levski Palms Bet from Bulgaria in their opening fixture, but then bounced back with a resounding 20-17 victory against Dublin of Ireland to wrap up their Pool F schedule.
With Dublin defeating Levski 21-19 in their clash, Seef were able to eke past this stage as their division’s runners-up, with the Irishmen taking first place. Levski did not make it through.
Seef, who are competing in Bulgaria with the quartet of Bogdan Dragovic, Austin Ajukwa, Uros Ilic, and Isa Jasim, will next take on another Bulgarian outfit in the last 16 in 3x3 Sofia. They topped Pool C but also registered one win and one loss in their two assignments yesterday.
Their contest is scheduled for today at 3pm, Bahrain time. The winners will move on to the quarter-finals, where they will face the victors from the other round-of-16 match-up between Uzice Zlatiborac from Serbia and Electromercantil PBL from Spain.
In the other games of the last 16, Toronto from Canada take on Gargzdai from Lithuania, West Gym from Bulgaria face KKS Polonia 3x3 from Poland, Wiesbaden 3x3 from Germany play Root/Jurmala from Latvia, Dublin take on Bucharest Stiinta Two from Romania, Sparkasse Bochum from Germany face Meferes VSC Vividbooks from the Czech Republic, and Team Estonia from Estonia battle Pale Troje from Poland.
The tournament, which started off yesterday with 24 teams from around the world, is an elite men’s 3x3 basketball event under the International Basketball Federation (Fiba), and it is an official Road to the World Tour meeting.
It is a Lite Quest competition, which is at the lower-level of Fiba’s international 3x3 circuit. It is too small to act as a direct qualifier for a Fiba 3x3 World Tour Masters tournament, but will award winning teams a place in a select Challenger meet.
The Fiba 3x3 World Tour is the premier street basketball series, with Masters stops being the highest-tier tournaments. Below them are Quest, Super Quest, Challenger, and Lite Quest events.
The Sofia Open 3x3 Palms Lite Quest is also a qualifier for the Caceres Challenger 2026 in Spain, scheduled for July 11 and 12. Only the winners in Sofia will book their slot.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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