Beijing Olympics 2008FIBA, in cooperation and collaboration with CCTV, is happy to announce that it will be offering a video news release of the Beijing Olympic Basketball Draw. Worldwide access (on Asiasat2, W3A and NSS806) will be available free of any and all rights fees or access charges.

On Saturday 26th April the draw for the Olympic Basketball Tournaments will be held in the Olympic basketball venue, the brand new Wukesong Indoor Stadium, the arena where the Good Luck Beijing Test Event for Women is currently being played.

The qualified teams, both men and women, will be drawn into two groups of six teams each with the assistance of 3-time Olympic Champion Lisa Leslie of the USA, Olympic Silver medallist Nathalie Porter from Australia and Chinese stars Whang Zhi Zhi and Sui Feifei.

The video highlights will offer action from the draw as well as interviews with players, coaches and delegation representatives from the teams present.

Date: Saturday, 26th April 2008
Time: 16:00 – 16:15 GMT
Length of Feed: approx 15 minutes
Satellite coordinates: FIBA has contracted the Eurovision World Feed Service to deliver the video news release on satellite.
Please login to www.eurovision.net to access, free of charge, the technical parameters:
If you are a registered user and have forgotten your password, please click here.
To become a registered user, please click here.

In addition, please be reminded that www.olympicbasketball.fiba.com will provide free coverage so that basketball fans around the world can follow the draw live on the Internet.

www.olympicbasketball.fiba.com offers exclusive websites, available in English, Chinese, Spanish and Greek languages, for each of the following six events marking this Olympic year: the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women (Madrid, Spain, from 9th to 15th June 2008), the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men (Athens, Greece, from 14th to 20th July 2008), the 3rd FIBA Diamond Ball for Men (Nanjing City, China, from 29th July to 1st August 2008), the 2nd FIBA Diamond Ball for Women (Haining, China, from 2nd to 5th August 2008), the Olympic Basketball Tournament for Women (Beijing, China, from 9th to 23rd August 2008) and the Olympic Basketball Tournament for Men (Beijing, China, from 10th to 24th August 2008). 

All six event websites will offer live results and statistics, game reports and previews, complete player profiles and biographies, hundreds of action photos, interviews and blogs from experts and fans, in addition to a variety of 'behind the scenes' features and videos.

www.olympicbasketball.fiba.com represents the perfect tool for any sports fan and media representative wanting to stay tuned with the latest news on Olympic basketball and with the qualification and preparation phases leading up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

On a different note, please be reminded that the Chinese Basketball Association will host the FIBA Central Board meeting in Beijing, tomorrow, Friday 25th April, and Saturday 26th of April 2008. A complete press release with all the FIBA Central Board decisions will be issued in due time.