Gilas Pilipinas drawn with Georgia, Latvia in FIBA Olympic Qualifying tiff

Gilas Pilipinas' tough road to the 2024 Paris Olympics has been set with the national team bunched with some fierce nations in the 2024 FIBA Qualifying Tournament slated for July 2 to 7 next year in various cities.

The Philippines was drawn into Group A along with world no. 23 Georgia and world no. 8 Latvia, which will serve as one of the hosts for the qualifying event.

Under the tournament format, Gilas, which is ranked no. 38 in the world, will play its Group A foes once while teams in Group B, composed of Brazil, Cameroon, and Montenegro, will also square off in a single round robin in Riga, Latvia.

The top two teams from each group will then advance to the crossover semifinals with the winners duking it out for one of the four Olympics spots available. 

The three other Olympic spots will be disputed in three other host cities namely Piraeus in Greece, San Juan in Puerto Rico, and Valencia in Spain.

Slovenia, New Zealand, and Croatia (Group A) as well as Egypt, Greece, and Dominican Republic (Group B) will compete in Piraeus while Mexico, Cote d'Ivoire, and Lithuania (Group A) and Italy, Puerto Rico, and Bahrain (Group B) will see action in San Juan. 

Lebanon, Angola, and Spain (Group A) and Finland, Poland, and Bahamas (Group B) are penciled for competition in Valencia. The same format will be played with the three other cities.

Seven countries have already qualified to the Summer Games during the FIBA World Cup here in the Philippines with champion Germany and runner-up Serbia for Europe, Canada and USA for Americas, Australia for Oceania, Japan for Asia, and South Sudan for Africa. France, which will host the quadrennial event, has also qualified.

Schedules for the FIBA OQT have yet to be released as of posting. 

—JMB, GMA Integrated News