Following the first ever European Tour in the sport, culminating in Finals at University Square in Bucharest last month, 16 male and 16 female teams have been confirmed today by the Games organisers. 

On the men's side, Romania will be joined by beaten European Tour finalists Slovenia, as well as bronze medals winners Lithuania and fourth placed Greece.

Serbia, Belgium, Spain, Estonia, Israel, Russia, Turkey, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Andorra and host nation Azerbaijan will also participate.

On the women's side, meanwhile, Slovenia and Belgium, silver and bronze medal winners on the European Tour, will hope to provide the sternest test for Russia, while The Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Turkey, Switzerland, Ukraine, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic, Israel, Greece, Slovakia and Azerbaijan will also participate.

This marks the first occasion in which Ireland's women have qualified for a major multi-sport event in basketball, something likely to please European Olympic Committees President, Patrick Hickey. 

3x3 basketball follows a number of other sports, beginning with gymnastics in May, to have announced participants at Baku 2015 ©Getty Images



The 3x3 tournaments will take place over four days of competition at the temporary Basketball Arena, which will have capacity seating for 2,000 spectators.

The game is played on a half-court between two teams and is estimated to be enjoyed by more than 250 million players worldwide, with International Basketball Federation secretary general Patrick Baumann recently telling insidethegames that 3x3 is the "future of the sport". 

"As one of the new and innovative sports included in our programme, there will be a huge amount of interest in basketball 3x3 and competition will be intense for the right to be called the first ever European Games champions," said Baku 2015 Director of Sport Pierce O'Callaghan.

"The sport is one of the fastest growing in the world, so we expect crowds to be thrilled by the action when the European Games gets underway."

Simon Clegg, chief operating officer of Baku 2015, added: "As we continue to count down the days until the beginning of the inaugural European Games, it is an exciting moment to be able to confirm participating nations and teams for the sports.

"I would like to congratulate all of the athletes who have now guaranteed their country's participation in basketball 3x3 at Baku 2015, and we look forward to welcoming them to the Games next year."

The European Games will take place from June 12 to 28 next year, with more than 6,000 athletes expected to descend on the Azerbaijani capital to compete across 20 different sports.

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