NMI to host ’09 Oceania Basketball Tournament

The 2009 Oceania Basketball Tournament will be held in the CNMI after the International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, awarded the hosting of the event to the Commonwealth.

The CNMI’s hosting was decided during a meeting of the Board of the Directors of the Oceania Zone held last May 16 in Sydney, Australia.

Basketball Association of the Northern Mariana Islands president Elias Rangamar was excited and happy about the award of the tournament to the CNMI.

“We’re really looking forward to hosting the countries of the Pacific next year. We’re going to put on a first-class tournament. It will be a great opportunity for the people of the Northern Marianas to get to see world-ranked teams from Australia and New Zealand, and for our men’s and women’s teams to compete against the best of the Pacific. We’re grateful to FIBA Oceania for giving us this opportunity to show what we can do,” he said.

Rangamar also extended special thanks to Lt. Gov. Timothy Villagomez, who expressed strong support for the CNMI’s bid.

The 2009 Oceania Basketball Tournament will feature men’s and women’s teams from across the Pacific.

Participation is limited to eight men’s and eight women’s teams. Australia and New Zealand have each committed to participate.

As host country, the CNMI will also enter men’s and women’s teams. The remaining five slots for men and for women will be filled by FIBA Oceania, which will select teams from those countries which have submitted a bid to participate.

The field is likely to be filled out by the powerhouses of basketball in the Pacific Islands. Guam, Fiji, and New Caledonia have all expressed interest, and are likely selections. Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, and American Samoa are possible selections as well.

BANMI, which will organize the 2009 Oceania Basketball Tournament, anticipates that the event will be held during the last week of June.

The site of competition will likely be the Marians High School Gymnasium and the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium and most of the athletes will be housed and fed at MHS.

During the tournament, the Congress of FIBA Oceania will also meet, during which representatives of the 21 basketball federations of the Oceania Zone will elect their president and other officers for the ensuing four years.

The Oceania Basketball Tournament is held every four years, unless basketball is on the sports program for the Pacific Mini Games. Next year’s Pacific Mini Games, which will be held in the Cook Islands, will not include basketball. The tournament was not held in 2005, since basketball was contested in the Palau Pacific Mini Games that year.