Basketball is set to take centre stage at Yas Mall this weekend, as Abu Dhabi hosts a qualifying stage of the Fiba 3x3 World Tour.
The tournament, officially the Abu Dhabi Challenger and scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the Town Square at Yas Mall, will give a sneak preview of the grand 3x3 finale, which will also be held in Abu Dhabi in October.
The 3x3 format, basketball’s developing short code that Fiba aims to make an Olympic sport, will put on display the more improvisational, free-flowing and frenetic style that is brought out by 3x3’s streetball roots.
This weekend’s competition is the third qualifying stage for the Manila Masters tournament in early August. That tournament, in turn, is the first of seven that will take the 3x3 circuit to Prague, Beijing, Lausanne, North America and Rio de Janeiro to finalise the field for the Fiba 3x3 World Tour Final in the UAE on October 15-16.
The Manila tournament has already staged qualifying competitions in New Zealand and Qatar, with four more scheduled after Abu Dhabi in Lebanon, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.
“We are trying to build a legacy for 3x3 basketball and I am very happy that we can host a major tournament like the Abu Dhabi 3x3 Challenger,” said Khalid Al Hanaei, the chairman of 3x3 for the UAE Basketball Association, in a release.
“We want to make people aware that Abu Dhabi will host the most important 3x3 basketball event of the year, the World Tour Final, and we are using every oppportunity to do so.”
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