GOLD COAST – Since the start of 3×3 Basketball in FISU, dating back to 2012, one idea has underlined every event hosted in FISU and within the wider frame of University Sports – the potential for growth and development. This has become more and more evident at the FISU World University Championships leading to the historic decision to launch a new property within the FISU sport programme – the World University Leagues. The key conceptual change of the Leagues was to promote competition between university teams instead of national teams traditionally undertaken in the Championships. This led to the inaugural edition of the 3×3 FISU League successfully hosted in Xiamen (China) in 2015.
The Inaugural 3×3 event in FISU was the 1st WUC in Kragujevac (SRB) in 2012
This success led to the implementation of qualifying tournaments (QTs) each hosted per continental regions by the respective FISU Associate Members. Five tournaments were hosted in 2016 envisioning the qualification to the finals in Xiamen – this year, an additional QT has been added and will be the first time all five FISU associate members qualify teams to finals through a continental tournament.
One of the mentioned tournaments is taking place in Australia where the Australian University Sport has launched a 3×3 Basketball Championship which aims to integrate on campus activation through to the international stage. AUS expects to run on campus tournaments at university level to select the representative teams. In turn, these teams will participate at the Regional University Games which will send the top two spots, in each gender, to play the Oceania 3×3 World University League (WUL) Qualifying Final.
This event will take place on the Gold Coast on 2-3 August where eight male and eight female teams who qualified through the Regional University Games compete for the Australian University Sport Championship pennant. The winning men’s and women’s team will book the spot for the 3×3 FISU League – 2017 finals that will take place in Xiamen (China) from 14-17 October 2017.
3×3 tournament organised by Australian University Sport
Dr Deidre Anderson, the President of Australian University Sport, stated in respect to the 3×3 WUL “Australian University Sport is excited by the opportunity to engage all 42 of our university members in the qualification process in support of FISU’s WUL 3×3 Basketball project. The qualification pathway will start with on-campus tournaments. Our new and innovative national championship model will provide a great stage for the eventual winner and qualifying university to progress to the WUL. This is very solid pathway program for us.”
This form of development – from a local level on campus, to a regional and then a national level – is exactly what FISU is looking to implement in the near future. Together with FIBA, our partner for 3×3 Basketball, FISU has identified 6 countries to trial this format of 3×3 development, from campus to the international stage, exactly as Australian University Sport has planned and implemented.
(Source: WUC Dept.)