News / Sports

Iranian basketball players fail to qualify for Rio

Wednesday, 06 July 2016 2:11 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 July 2016 4:38 AM ]

The photo shows a view of the match between Iran (player in white) and Mexico at the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Turin, Italy, on July 5, 2016.

The Iranian men’s national basketball team has suffered the second defeat in a row at the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, missing the forthcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In a disappointing evening at the multi-purpose Pala Alpitour indoor sports arena in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday, the Iranians missed the Rio berth by five points and conceded a 70-75 loss to Mexico.

“Iran, they showed a lot of guts. The big fella (Hamed Haddadi), he's really crafty down there. He's a little slower, but it's weird because he's really effective. They had a couple of guards get hot, the guy (Behnam Yakhchali) hit some threes and they got back in it. They showed some guts to get back into it, especially after losing on Monday,” said Paul Stoll, Mexico's 30-year-old American-born player, after the match.

The Persians’ defeat came only a day after suffering a loss in their opener against Greece.

The 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament started in Turin on July 4 and will run through July 9.

Greece, Iran and Mexico form Group A, and Croatia, Italy and Tunisia are put in Group B of the preliminary round of the international sports event.

Basketball fixtures at the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held between August 6 and 21. The preliminary and knockout matches for both men and women will be played inside the Carioca Arena 1 of Olympic Park, which reportedly seats up to 16,000 spectators.

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