IWBF have published the new timeframe and Athlete Selection Process that has been developed with the Commonwealth Games Federation for the wheelchair basketball 3X3 competition at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In addition to the Zone places won by the South African men’s team and South African women’s team, Zone places (one men's and one women's) are also available to both the Asia Oceania Zone and European Zone through their qualification events in Thailand and Scotland. From the Americas, a bipartite process detailed in the Athlete Selection Process shall be used to determine the men’s and women’s teams progressing to Birmingham 2022.
England’s men's and women's teams have already qualified as the host nation for the Commonwealth Games this year.
Two more places are then available as wild cards, where IWBF will apply the bipartite criteria to determine the final men’s and women’s teams to join the host and those nations qualified through the zonal process.
This is the first appearance of wheelchair basketball in the Commonwealth Games programme and it will be delivered from 29 July to 3 August at Smithfields in the heart of Birmingham, England. The 3X3 wheelchair basketball competition shall be delivered in conjunction with the 3X3 running game, providing a platform of real integration in event delivery for the first time on the world stage.
IWBF Chair of Competition Commission, Charlie Bethel, said:
"This is our first Commonwealth Games and it is shaping up to be a tremendous spectacle and celebration of the Basketball Family.
"With all the challenges in the world today, it is really encouraging that we have been able to retain so much of the qualification system we had planned, and with the final tweaks to the timeline, we are confident that we can reflect the Commonwealth Games spirit and show the world the transformational power of wheelchair basketball.
"A huge thank you to the Commonwealth Games Federation and our members for their tremendous support so far."
