Of the most outstanding notes that the basketball Dominican in 2021, the 3×3 modality was one of the most deserving and even more so on the international stage.
Among other achievements, a men’s bronze in the Americup and a silver in the first Games Youth Pan American Cali-Valle 2021.
In 2022 they have two international competitions and a desire that is waiting for the financial support they can receive.
They also hope to grow internally with more provinces since the provinces of La Vega, San Francisco, La Altagracia and San Cristóbal stand out more, “but now there are six that we are going to work from this month,” says the director of the commission of 3×3 basketball, Elka Jiménez.
The 3×3 will be part of the delegation that will attend the Caribbean Games and the Bolivarian Games; as well as the Americup, the three events in the two branches. And the U18 (men’s) and U23 (women’s) World Cup “and we want to participate in the League of Nations”, it is expected.
This is for the next 12 months, after its great year 2021. At the beginning of 2022, in the ranking updated on January 5, at the federal level, the basketball it is among the top 30 in the world. “We are ranked 29th in the world, but we are not satisfied with that, we want to be among the top 10,” says Jiménez.
And at the level of America “we are six from America and we also want to advance in that sense.”
Since its creation, this group began to surprise with high-caliber medals, such as men’s silver and women’s bronze at the Barranquilla 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games and then men’s and women’s bronze at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
Those achievements are inspiring and for this year, they aspire to take other leaps. “This team dreams and does not let go of their dreams until they reach them,” says Jiménez.
¿A world tour in RD?
Well yes. Jiménez said so. It is a dream, but one that you hope to make come true. Although one important factor is missing: money.
“To do that we would have to have sponsors. It is not the Federation. One stop on a world tour is an expensive tournament, Jiménez said. “It is not cheap”.
The tour starts regularly in the middle of the year and ends in December, regularly they are eight to 12 stops.
The most satisfactory thing is that “the Dominican Republic has received three invitations to the World Tour and due to lack of funds we have not been able to mount them,” he says.
In order, he details, the invitations have been “one for the Woman Series and two for the World Tour” in the male branch.
They were invited to Croatia, prior to the 3×3 pre-Olympic and they invited us to the Mexico stop, before the Americup.
Mounting
Actually, there have been initial conversations, nothing definitive, about setting up a tour stop in the country.
The contest would be attractive for the country, as it could well be played in the coastal areas of the country, as a tourist attraction. After finishing the World Tour the winning team takes $ 60 thousand at the close, but regularly if they win a stop, the champion takes $ 40 thousand.
To get there you need business support and “they have to be companies that have an international need for projection, which can facilitate an event like 3×3”, either inside or outside the country. “Mexico and Canada are the only two stops in America. Imagine that we bring one to the Dominican Republic, ”says Jiménez.
The country’s calendar indicates for February 18, the Los Multis NY tournament, a contest organized by vegans who went to reside in the United States and mount the tournament on the Los Multis court “for their community and do it with their own means”. Then follows the Gordo Gordo, in La Vega, for February 28. Both are one-day tournaments.
