ANKARA, Turkey (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women) – With just over four months to go until the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Women, the draw was held in Ankara on Wednesday 15 February.

Attending the draw were a large number of officials, dignitaries and media, as well as delegations from six of the participating countries.

During the ceremony, the 12 teams that will compete for the five remaining places on offer for the 2012 Olympic Basketball Tournament for Women, were divided into four groups.
 
Group A: Japan, Puerto Rico, Turkey

Group B: Argentina, Czech Republic, New Zealand

Group C: Croatia, Korea, Mozambique

Group D: Canada, France, Mali
 
The group stages will see each team play the two others in their respective groups in a standard round robin format (12 games in total). The top two teams in each group will progress to the Quarter-Finals, that are to be played as follows:

A1 v B2
B1 v A2
C1 v D2
D1 v C2

The four winning quarter-finalists qualify automatically for the London Olympics, while the four losing teams will play for the last remaining place as follows:

Loser [A1 v B2] v Loser [C1 v D2]
Loser [B1 v A2] v Loser [D1 v C2]

The two winning semi-finalists will go head to head for the 12th and final Olympic berth.

The OQT for Women takes place in Ankara from 25 June to 1 July 2012.

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About the FIBA and the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament

The Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) was first introduced in 1960, while the first Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women was held for the first time in 1980. Both the men’s and the women’s OQTs were played according to a variety of formats before being discontinued after 1992.

They were reintroduced in 2008, with Belarus, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Spain and Latvia taking the five women’s spots, while Croatia, Germany and Greece were the three final men’s teams to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. The 2008 men and women’s OQTs took place in Madrid, Spain and Athens, Greece respectively.

For further information about Olympic Basketball visit london2012.fiba.com, or our social networks facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.

FIBA (fiba.com) – the world governing body for basketball – is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).