The schedule for the IWBF 2019 Asia Oceania Championships has been published. Taking place between the 29th November - 7th December in Pattaya, Thailand, the IWBF 2019 Asia Oceania Championships will see fourteen men’s teams and eight women’s teams, from the fifteen represented countries, compete in the zonal competition.
The championships, which is being hosted by the Thailand Wheelchair Basketball Association, will decide the countries from the Asia Oceania Zone that will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
The opening ceremony and the first game of the competition, the men’s game between China and the hosts Thailand, will take place on Friday 29th November with the finals on Saturday 7th December.
The Asia Oceania Zone has four spots available for the men and three spots available for the women at Tokyo 2020, with one spot in each competition already allocated to Japan as host country.
In the men’s competition the six top ranked teams – Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea, China, and Thailand – will play in Division 1, which will be a single round robin to determine 1-6 in the ranking. The other eight teams – Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia – will be drawn into two pools of four in Division 2 and will also play in a single round robin to determine placing, followed by crossovers, semi-finals and then a final to determine which are the top two teams in Division 2.
Once Division 2 has concluded on Wednesday 4th December, the top two teams will become the 7th and 8th ranked teams in Division 1 to make up the quarter-final pairings. Teams 9 to 14 will play ranking games to decide lower placings.
The eight women’s teams competing will make up the biggest ever women’s competition that has happened at an Asia Oceania Championship. A similar format will be conducted in the women’s competition. The top three ranked teams in the region – Australia, China, and Japan – will play a double round robin in Division 1 to arrive at a 1-3 ranking for this tournament.
The five other women’s teams – Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Iran, and Thailand – will play in a round robin in Division 2. The winner of Division 2 will then join Division 1 to be the 4th ranked team to make up the semi-final pairings. Teams 5-8 will play ranking games to decide lower placings.
Click on the button below to download a full PDF schedule for the 2019 Asia Oceania Championships.
