Serbia and China won the gold medals in the finals of the boys and girls' competition at the Scape Youth Space today before a crowd that included International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, who was impressed by his first sight of a sport which has been the undoubted hit of these Games.

Serbia beat Croatia 22-9 in the boys' action while girls' team from China beat Australia 33-29 to claim the gold medal amid a cacophony of noise.

Bob Elphinston, the President of FIBA, basketball's world governing body, hailed the tournament as the first step on the road to 3-on-3 - which is played with only one basket on half-a-court - becoming part of the main Olympics.

He told insidethegames: "It's been a huge success.

"It's achieved much more than our wildest dreams, how the athletes have enjoyed this style of 3-on-3, how the media and television have reacted so well.

"The IOC are very positive about it.

"It's a wonderful format - and for this age-group particularly."

Elphinston is now set to sit down with his officials at FIBA and try to come up with a strategy to exploit the opportunity presented by this success, including possibly launching a worldwide tournament.
 
He said: "It gives us a wonderful opportunity to rebrand 3-on-3 worldwide.

"We've been working for a while on how we might grow this in a global way.

"A world league?

"Who knows?

"But certainly we want to use it to encourage young boys and girls to want to play basketball.

"It's much easier [than traditional basketball] - find three friends and you've got a team.

"You can play it in the schoolyard, in the shopping centre, on the beach, in a park."



But being included in the Olympic programme is the ultimate goal and Elphinston believes that it can sit comfortably with the more traditional five-a-side basketball, which has been part of every Games since making its debut at Berlin in 1936.

After presenting the winning Serbian team with their gold medals, Elphinston told insidethegames: "It's no different to what you see in volleyball where you have [indoor] volleyball and then you have beach volleyball.

"This will become a very strong discipline of basketball and we'll certainly be knocking on the door of the IOC to see where we can fit it in.

"Carlos Nuzman, the President of Rio [2016] loves it.

"He wants it on Copacabana Beach in the beach volleyball venue sharing that.

"I can't imagine anything better."

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