World champs Spain close in on US in FIBA ranking

By Fatih Erel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Team USA remain on top in the FIBA World Ranking Men, though newly-crowned World Cup champions Spain narrow the gap.

"There was significant movement at the top end of the ranking, with Australia (673.6) climbing to third place and leapfrogging the fourth-ranked Argentina (670.5) and fifth-placed France (665.4) in the process," FIBA said in a statement on Thursday.

The top-ranked U.S. team have 786.4 points, followed by Spain with 731.5 points and Australia with 673.6 points.

Spain won the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup after beating Argentina 95-75 in Sunday's final in Beijing, China.

Poland also climbed to higher positions after the World Cup as did the Czechs, who finished the World Cup at sixth place while Poland took the eighth spot.

"Czech Republic (596.8) and Poland (583.0) were among the highest risers, with their strong showings at the World Cup reflecting in the newly-updated ranking. The Czechs climbed 14 places and are now 10th, while the Poles jumped to 13th place, having gained 12 positions," FIBA said.

- Turkey up 2 in FIBA ranking

Despite a heart-breaking tournament performance, Turkey climbed two positions in the latest FIBA ranking.

Turkey is now ranked at the 15th spot with 524,6 points.

Turkey finished the tournament in the 22nd spot, after being eliminated in the group phase to USA and Czech Republic. In the classification rounds, Turkey beat Montenegro 79-74 but lost to New Zealand 101-102.

- Last 8 countries in Olympic qualifiers

FIBA also announced the last eight countries that will participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Angola, Senegal from Africa continent, Uruguay and Mexico from America continent, China and South Korea from Asia continent and Croatia and Slovenia from Europe will participate in the qualifiers.