24 Teams Battle For Fiji Cup

Twenty four teams have secured its place in the Basket­ball Fiji Cup, which started yesterday at the Vodafone Arena in Suva.

The Fiji Cup is a national championship featuring top basketball teams from around the country; 18 men’s team and six wom­en’s team.

It was formerly known as the Easter tournament championship.

Chief operations officer Laisiasa Puamau said the aim of the competition was to engage its players.

“This is the first time, we have changed the for­mat, this was traditionally known as the national East­er tournament which has now changed to Fiji Cup,” he said.

“Try to improve our play­ers and participate in a national competition and expose our referees.

“Best 40-50 players will be identified and put into teams and we hope to run something like a super league.”

The winners of the tour­nament will be the national men’s and women’s cham­pion who will be awarded prize money, sporting equipment and uniforms.

Referees refresher training

Twenty one participants were part of the referee re­fresher training organized by Basketball Fiji and In­ternational Basketball Fed­eration (FIBA) Oceania on Wednesday.

Puamau was glad to see women’s interest in officiat­ing basketball games.

“We are in partnership with our international body, FIBA representative, Debra Kairs, officiated the one-day workshop.

“She will also be working at the games, providing on court practical support for the referees, as they con­tinue to get better,” Puamau said.

“The referees are from various associations from Suva, Nadi, Lautoka and Raiwaqa and it’s good to see women referees too.

Melanesian Cup

Fiji has won the bid to host the Melanesian Cup in Oc­tober.

The dates have not been confirmed yet.

The national squad would be selected after a mini su­per league tournament next month.

“After the super league, we will then identify the play­ers that will participate in the Melanesian Cup which will be hosted by Basketball Fiji.”

The FIBA Melanesia Cup is a sub-regional qualifica­tion phase for the Pacific Games, which serves as the official qualifier to the FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers.

The countries grouped in the region are Fiji, New Cal­edonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Va­nuatu.