The 2016 FIBA U18 Oceania Basketball Championships was launched at the Vodafone Arena in Suva yesterday.

Basketball Fiji will be hosting the event on December 4-10 where Australia, Guam, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Fiji will be fighting for a spot in the U19 World Championships in Egypt and Italy next year.

The Ministry for Youth and Sports acting director George Francis commended Basketball Fiji on their effort to grow the sport in the country.

“Basketball has really developed and grown, this would not have been possible without the persistence and dedication by Basketball Fiji and the sportspersons who continued to love and play the sport at every local and international tournament,” Francis said. “Though basketball is still a minor sport it grows in popularity during the recent school holidays.

“Earlier this year Fiji has played host to many international events which has brought immense result towards sports development and economic growth.”

The event is expected to be televised across the Oceania region and will also be made available via live stream with an estimated international audience of 350,000 viewers

Basketball Fiji vice-president Ned Taito said the sport has grown immensely over the years.

“Since hosting the 2014 championships we have been able to grow the number of people involved in the sport,”Taito said. “But now we have well over 23,000 that are participating in the sport actively or in the schools and we are grateful to the Fiji National Sports Commission and Fiji Association of Sports National Olympic Committee for assisting us on our journey.”

Source: The Fiji Sun Newspaper

September 14 2016