India win gold at South Asia 3x3 basketball championship, qualify for FIBA 3x3 World Tour

India's senior men’s team has been crowned champions in the 2015 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers at Gateway College in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday, August 2. Facing familiar opponents Colombo Sri Lanka Reds in the finals, whom they had lost to a day earier in the league stages, India showed great heart and courage to dominate the Islanders at home 21-10.

The day began with India dominating Nepal 20-10 in a must win last league match to qualify to the semifinals as the second seeded team. In the semis, India continued its strong form to beat Sri Lanka Blacks 18-10, before powering through to a 21-10 finals victory.

An excited Siddhant Shinde said after the gold medal finish, “We did it for the 1.24 billion people of India. We hope this inspires the youth of the nation to take up basketball.” As South Asia winners, the four man squad comprising Shinde, Basil Philip, Rajesh Uppar and Jeevanantham Pandi, has now qualified for the 3x3 World Tour which will be held on 15th and 16th August 2015 in Beijing, China. 

The Indian senior men’s basketball team participated in the 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 1st and 2nd August 2015. The four member team comprised Basil Philip (Kerala), Rajesh Uppar (Karnataka), Siddhant Shinde (Maharashtra) and Jeevanantham Pandi (Tamil Nadu) flew out of Bengaluru to Colombo on 31st July morning, and will return to Bengaluru on 3rd August 2015.