BASKETBALL – BAHRAIN representatives Riffa clinched third place last night in the Superleague Pro 3x3 Stop Two basketball tournament, played in Beauvais, France.
The kingdom’s squad came up short in their title bid after bowing out of contention in the semi-final stage of the highly competitive street basketball competition.
They lost to Vienna of Austria in their last-four clash 11-21.
Riffa, who are Bahrain’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour team, began the day yesterday with an impressive 22-10 win over Bordeaux Ballistik of France in the quarter-final stage. They could not ride their momentum, however, into their next assignment against the Austrians.
Partizan of Serbia defeated Ermont Senef of France in the other semi-final encounter, setting up their clash for the title with Vienna.
The Serbians went on to capture the crown after defeating Vienna 21-11 in the title-decider.
Riffa claimed their place on the tournament’s final standings with a superior points total over the other losing semi-finalists Ermont Senef. Riffa finished with 71 points while Ermont Senef had 60.
Completing the final classification in the tournament from fifth through ninth place, respectively, were Toulouse of France with 54 points, Saint-Denis, also of France, with 49 points, Gargzdai of Lithuania with 44 points, Bordeaux Ballistik with 41 points, and Los Angeles of the US with 30 points.
Riffa competed in the event with a squad that featured Dennis Donkor, Jonas Foerts, Thibaut Vervoort, and Vic Van Oosterwyck.
They were gunning for a sensational double in Beauvais after winning the Superleague Pro 3x3 Stop One last week with their same quartet – but could not repeat that success.
The second event was one of three tournament’s on Riffa’s April schedule. The others are a Superquest competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, this coming Saturday, which will then lead up to the opening meeting on the 2025 Fiba 3x3 World Tour – the game’s biggest and most prestigious street basketball competition with stops all over the world, including Bahrain. The first round will be held in Utsunomiya, Japan on April 26 and 27.
After 13 other stops all through October of this year, the Fiba 3x3 World Tour finale will then take place in Bahrain on November 21 and 22.
This will be the first time ever that the kingdom will be staging the season-ender, which will crown this year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour champions.
The past two editions held in Bahrain were the Manama Masters. Riffa were classified third overall on the final team standings in last year’s Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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