Philippines to host Olympic basketball qualifying tournament

The Philippines will host one of three Olympic basketball qualifying tournaments in July.

The country joins Italy and Serbia as the three hosts of for the tournaments that will determine the wildcard entries to the Olympics in Rio, FIBA announced on Tuesday.

Philippines, Italy & Serbia will host the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (4-10 July)! #FIBAOQT #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/pc7dCAH2nR

— FIBA (@FIBA) January 19, 2016

Gilas Pilipinas will compete for a spot in the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The national team took home the silver medal in last year's FIBA Asia Championship, missing the outright Olympic berth after losing to China in the final.

They join the wild card qualifiers with Asian third and fourth placers Iran and Japan.

With Italy and Serbia hosting tournaments, Lebanon, Latvia, and Croatia also advance to the wild card qualifiers to complete the 18 teams in the three competitions.

Other teams already qualified are France, Greece, Czech Republic, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Angola, Tunisia, Senegal, and New Zealand.

The Philippines finally earned the nod to host a high-profile international tournament after also bidding for the 2019 FIBA World Cup but losing to China in the final voting.

It will be the second major tournament in the Philippines in four years after hosting the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship. —JST, GMA News