Belgrade, Serbia, February 9, 2020: Korea will be competing in the Olympic women's basketball tournament for the first time since 2008 this summer, reports Yonhap News.
Korea grabbed the third and final qualifying spot for Tokyo 2020 in a four-nation competition that wrapped up on Sunday in Belgrade. Korea finished third behind China and Spain, with Britain coming in last after losing all three games in a qualifying competition that was moved from Foshan, China to Belgrade due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Korea lost to China 100-60 on Sunday afternoon at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in the Serbian capital to finish with a 1-2 win-loss record.
Korea began the qualifying event with a 83-46 loss to Spain on Thursday but defeated Britain 82-79 in the crucial game on Saturday to keep alive their hopes of going to Tokyo.
Following a loss to China, Korea needed Spain to beat Britain so that Korea would take the third spot – and World No. 3 Spain duly obliged 79-69.
Korea had missed the past two Olympics after playing in four straight Summer Games before that. The country's best performance came in Los Angeles in 1984 with the silver medal behind the United States.