I traveled to the Qatari capital, Doha, as the delegation of the Lebanese national team for males (under 16 years), to participate in the Asian Basketball Championship between 12 and 19 June.
The delegation includes: Hisham Jaradi as president, Rabie Francis as coach, George Akiki and Maroun Deeb as assistant coaches. Joe Aramouni, physical therapist, Mitri Habib, fitness coach, Claude Abi Gabriel, international referee, to the players: Jean Paul El-Shamy (captain of the national team), Jad Tabbara, Ryan Hashem, Giorgio Azzi, Sirouj Avedissian, Ray Abu Sleiman, Anthony El-Naba, Tony Awad, Brian Saleh, Carl Zamata, Chris Hashem and Nikolai Choueiri.
Thirteen teams will participate in the tournament, divided into four groups as follows:
Group One: Australia, Bahrain, India and Qatar.
The second group: Lebanon, Iran and Indonesia.
Group C: Philippines, Japan and Kuwait.
Group D: South Korea, New Zealand and Kazakhstan.
This is the program of the matches of the Lebanese national team in the first round:
– Sunday, June 12: Lebanon – Indonesia (20.15 Beirut time).
Tuesday, June 14: Lebanon – Iran (20.15 Beirut time).
It is noteworthy that the Asian Championship qualifies for the World Championships, which will be held in Malaga (Spain) between 2 and 10 July, as the four teams that will qualify for the semi-finals of the continental championship will participate in the World Championship along with teams from all continents.
Lebanon had previously qualified for the Asian Championship following booking the second place in the West Asian Championship, which was held last month in the Jordanian capital, Amman.