Qatar stole the show on the last day of the 3x3 Basketball Preliminary Round yesterday.
The Qatari men, the 2014 FIBA 3x3 World Cup winners, are big favourites to win gold. On Day 5 they overwhelmed Afghanistan 22-8 and Jordan 21-9 to take first place in Pool C with a perfect 3-0 record and advance to a quarter-final against Turkmenistan.
It will be a rematch of the Islamic Solidarity Games semi-final this year in Baku, Azerbaijan. In that game Qatar cruised to a 21-14 win over Turkmenistan before losing the final 13-9 to the host team.
“Now it will probably be another story, because they play at home and have the support of their fans,” Qatar’s Tanguy Ngombo said of the Turkmen.
Teammate Nedim Muslic, after the win over Afghanistan, had said, “There are many people who consider us favourites. I believe that we have the best team here, but we have to prove it in three more games until the end of the tournament.”
If Qatar are the side to beat in the men’s tournament, the Uzbeks seem to be an emerging force in the women’s game at the event.
The last of the team to take the stage at the Games, Uzbekistan eased to victories over the Cook Islands (21-10) and Jordan (17-12) in one hour, giving them first place in Pool C and the prize of a quarter-final tie with Indonesia.
The action at 3x3 Basketball Arena continues today with eight quarter-finals to decide the teams that will battle for medals.

Qatar snooker team reaches quarters
Elsewhere in Ashgabat, Qatari snooker team advanced to the quarter-finals after beating hosts Turkmenistan yesterday.
In the first game, Ahmad Saif beat Aziz Dordiev, before Ali al-Obaidli beat Ibrahim Sedanzov.
Saif then teamed up with Khamis al-Obaidli to beat the Dordiev-Sedanzov combing for a 3-0 victory.
Qatar will now meet Thailand in the quarter-finals today.
In the swimming competition, 50 meters freestyle swimmer Abdullah Abu-Ghazaleh ranked 24th in the overall standings, while teammate Firas Saidi was 27th in the heats.
In the 100m breaststroke heats, Nasser Yaser and Abdulrahman Hisham were 22nd and 23rd respectively.
In the 200 individual medley heats, Hisham finished 13th in the qualifiers, while Abdulaziz al-Obaidli was 15th.
The Equestrian competitions will continue today, with Qatari riders aiming for glory in the individual events, after having picked up a silver in the team event on Thursday. Qatar is represented by Faleh al-Ajami, Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah and Salman al-Emadi.
In the chess competition, Qatar’s Husein Aziz Nezad finished the day with two draws, against Mohall Abdullah al-Rakib of Bangladesh and Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran.
In the first game of the day, Mohamed al-Sayed shared points with Jasem al-Huwar of the UAE. Al-Sayed picked up a point against Eugenio Torre of the Philippines later in the evening.
After registering two wins on the first day, Zhu Chen suffered two defeats yesterday.
Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahad al-Sabah met with the Qatari delegation on the sidelines of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. The delegation comprises Qatar Olympic Committee deputy secretary general Jassim al-Buainain, and Sports Affairs director Khalil al-Jaber.
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