Basketball first sport on trial for Games qualification

By HENRY MORABANG
Basketball is the first sport on trial for qualification for the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
Pacific Games Council (PGC) chief executive officer Andrew Minogue clarified queries about the qualification process for the Pacific Games.
Minogue was responding to questions on whether qualification for basketball would harm the spirit or purpose of the Pacific Games.
“We don’t think it defeats the purpose of the Games because FIBA is using the Pacific Games as a qualifier to the Asian Championships as well and thus a step towards World Championships qualification,” Minogue said.
He confirmed that last year PGC formally signed off on this qualification process for basketball as a trial.
“It is the only sport we permitted it a qualification process.  We will see what the feedback is from all the countries once the process is complete and then judge whether to extend it to other sports or not in future Games,” he said.
He said fortunately, host Samoa had added 3×3 basketball to its programme so countries not qualifying in the five-a-side would still have a chance to compete.
The 2017 Melanesian Basketball Cup completed over the weekend was sanctioned by the world governing body, FIBA, as a qualifier for Pacific Games, the Asia Basketball Championships and the World Basketball championships.
Minogue said the region’s national olympic committees and their athletes were looking to the Pacific Games to help them qualify for other major events.