BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's women's basketball team will start their quest for an Olympic berth in the Asia-Oceania pre-qualifying tournament against South Korea, organizers announced on Thursday.
The FIBA women's Olympic Asia-Oceania pre-qualifying tournament will be held from November 14-17. Group A matches will take place in New Zealand, featuring China, South Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines, while Group B consisting of Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei and India will have matches played in Malaysia.
The New Zealand side, known as the Tall Ferns, revealed the competition schedule on Twitter on Thursday.
China will take on South Korea on Nov. 14, before facing New Zealand on Nov. 16 and the Philippines on Nov. 17 respectively.
The top two teams in each group of Asia-Oceania pre-qualifying tournament will advance to the FIBA women's Olympic qualifying tournaments in February 2020.
The African tournament, featuring six teams, will produce two qualifying spots, while the Americas competition will witness eight teams contend for four qualifying spots.
The top six teams from the 2019 FIBA Women's EuroBasket tournament - namely Spain, France, Serbia, Britain, Sweden and Belgium - will proceed directly to the Olympic qualifying tournaments.
Sixteen teams in the Olympic qualifying tournaments will be allocated into four groups, with the top three teams from each group qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Reigning Olympic champions the United States and hosts Japan have qualified directly for the Tokyo Games.
