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Polish 3×3 basketball team wins promotion to Summer Olympics in Tokyo

The Polish national 3×3 basketball team won the promotion to the Summer Olympics 2021 tournament to be held in Tokyo, after seeing off Latvia 20:18 in the semi-finals of the world Olympic qualifiers in Graz, Austria.

Earlier on Sunday, the players of coach Piotr Renkiel defeated Slovenia 21:16 in the quarter-finals.

Poland, seeded 8th, was represented in Austria by three bronze medalists of the 2019 World Cup in Amsterdam: Michael Hicks, Paweł Pawłowski, Przemysław Zamojski and Szymon Rduch.

Their rivals from Latvia, the current world runners-up, seeded 5th, defeated the Lithuanian team 21:19 in the quarter-finals. The Latvians, just like the Poles, stood on the podium of the World Cup for the first time in 2019, taking silver.

“We knew we could win against Latvia. We fought until the very end, and we made it. Until recently, I have not even dreamed that I would play at the Olympics. Winning a promotion feels amazing,” said Michael Hicks after the triumph.

The Netherlands joined Poland after defeating France 21:13 in the second semi-final. The last spot at the Summer Olympics was taken by Latvia, who saw France off in the match for third place.

Men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball will make its debut in Tokyo in the programme of the Summer Olympics.

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