Basketball

Olympics far away for 3×3 women after losses

Austria's 3x3 women's national basketball team has lost its first two games in the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games and is therefore only theoretically in the running for a ticket to Paris! 

The team formed by Inga Orechowa, Alexia Allesch, Rebekka Kalaydjiev and Anja Fuchs-Robetin lost 15:21 to hosts Japan and 11:21 to Brazil in Utsunomiya on Friday. The final game of the group phase will be against the Germans on Saturday (12:45 CEST).

Coach Edin Bavcic: "The preparation time was short!"
Only with a win against their neighbors and a simultaneous defeat of the Brazilians against Japan, the chance for the Olympics is still alive. For this to happen, the points difference in both games would have to be in Austria's favor.

Coach Edin Bavcic saw the lack of experience in 3x3 as the main reason for the defeats. "The players come straight from five-a-side, the preparation time was short. But that shouldn't be an excuse," said the former Klosterneuburg pro.