RIYADH: The 3×3 Basketball World Tour Championship will be held as part of the second Diriyah season on Nov. 11-12, the Ministry of Sport announced during a press conferance on Wednesday.
The event will be organized by the ministry in coordination with the Saudi Basketball Federation, and held under the supervision of the International Basketball Federation.
President of the Saudi Basketball Federation Ghassan Tashkandi said that the Kingdom had hosted many international sporting events over the past years with the support of the government. This included three rounds of the 3×3 Basketball Championship, encompassing a world tour in Jeddah during the past three years. This was the fourth championship in the Kingdom and the first in Riyadh within the activities of the Diriyah Season 2022.
He thanked the Ministry of Sports under the leadership of Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, who he described as the first supporter of tri-basketball, with the aim of expanding the base of its practitioners in the Kingdom.
Tashkandi said that the International Basketball Federation had been very cooperative during past years in hosting the tournament rounds in the Kingdom and said that the cooperation between the Saudi and International Basketball Federations 3X3 would continue in the coming years.
Head of the FIBA 3X3 Activities Department Ignesu Serrano said that he appreciated the confidence of the Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Olympic Committee in the FIBA, and the partnership between the two sides, which had contributed to the Kingdom’s hosting of the fourth tournament.
The value of prizes for the tournament during this world tour of the FIBA 3×3 Riyadh Masters game exceeded $2 million, he said, and the current 3X3 Olympic champions, the Riga team, in addition to other players who appeared in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, will compete. A total of 11 countries are competing, including the Riyadh team and the Jeddah team, and all participating teams are fighting for spots in the world tour final in mid-December.
Serrano said that this year had seen remarkable successes for tri-basketball. The tournament this weekend in Diriyah would host strong competition between the best 3X3 teams in the world, especially as player rankings will be decided for the qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
On Nov. 11 and 12, the historic village of Diriyah in Riyadh will receive for the first time 14 of the best international teams as part of the activities of the Diriyah season 2022, competing for the title of the Basketball 3×3 World Tour Championship.
This international sporting event will be accompanied by many events and recreational activities, including the dunk challenge, acrobatic entertainment shows, competitions among the audience, as well as freestyle basketball control, the three-point challenge, a concert by hip-hop stars Duo Duffy and Filbrace, as well as international band Marsimba, in addition to a number of other musical performances.