Women's basketball team begin road to Tokyo today

The Korean women’s basketball team will start vying for a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Led by head coach Lee Moon-kyu, the women’s team will start competing at the FIBA Women’s Olympic pre-qualifying tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand, starting today. Assigned in Group A, Korea will play against the eighth-ranked China, 35th-ranked New Zealand and 50th-ranked Philippines. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format.

“Since earning a spot in the final Olympic qualifier is the most important thing, rather than focusing on winning against China, we’re focusing on our game against New Zealand at this tournament,” Lee said. “If it was a single tournament, it would be right to think about our game against China, but our biggest goal for this tournament is to earn a spot onto the final Olympic qualifier.”

Korea will start the tournament with a game against China today. Following that match, Korea will play against the Philippines on Saturday and will finish the group stage with a game against New Zealand on Sunday.

The top two teams will earn their spot in the final qualifier.

By Kang Yoo-rim