Spain Faces Tough Road to Qualify for Paris Olympics in 2024 with Pre-Olympic Tournament in Valencia

The Pre-Olympic will be held in Valencia from July 2 to 7, 2024. Spain, to get to Paris, will play against Lebanon, Angola, Poland, Finland and the Bahamas and the road is not easy: it has to be the best of all to not missing the Games for the first time in this century. L M N

The draw was kind for the National Team until the last drum came into play, with a poisoned candy. The Bahamas left Argentina and its NBA trio out of this Pre-Olympic.

The Caribbean team is the main threat in a tournament that also includes Lauri Markkanen’s Finland and Ponitka, Sokolowski and Slaughter’s Poland. Lebanon and Angola, in principle, will be minor rivals for the National Team.

“We will try to naturally assume the objective, which is none other than to qualify for the Games, but we will do it with a lot of humility, a lot of concentration and a lot of respect for our rivals,” say Sergio Scariolo.

Spain will open against Lebanon on Tuesday, July 2 and will play against Angola the next day, July 3. Then he will rest before the semifinals, which will be played on Saturday the 6th. The grand final, that same Sunday.

La Fonteta will host an event in which Spain has a lot at stake, although organizing this tournament is not a guarantee of anything. “The first step, at a sporting level, is going to be obligatory: analyze why in almost all the previous Pre-Olympics, six out of seven, the home team has not qualified, despite being a quality team and on many occasions the stronger. It is an important reflection, the statistics are too forceful not to analyze them,” commented Scariolo.

The winners of the four Pre-Olympics will join France, classified as hosts; Germany and Serbia, world champion and runner-up and, obviously, the two best European teams in the intercontinental event; Canada and the United States (those that finished in Indonesia in a higher position in America, third and fourth, respectively), Australia (from Oceania), Japan (from Asia) and South Sudan (Africa).

Six teams divided into two groups (A and B) will participate in each of the qualifying tournaments. After the first phase (two days), the two best from each of the groups go to the semifinals where they will face each other (1ºA against 2ºB and 1ºB against 2ºA). The winners will compete in a final, which will determine who gets the Olympic ticket.

2023-11-29 01:20:36
#Basketball #Spains #rivals #PreOlympic