Rio de Janeiro hosts Brazilian basketball development tournament for the first time

RIO DE JANEIRO (Brazil) – The Brazilian Basketball Confederation (CBB) is on a great streak at this time of year, with the national women’s team being crowned champions in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru; the U21 team competing for a place among the best of the South American Championship in Tunja, Colombia; the final stage of the 3x3 Brazilian Basketball Championship, which is the main event of this modality; all while preparing their national senior men’s team for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.

The challenge now is the new edition of the U18 Brazil Interclubs Championship (CBI, for its Portuguese acronym), a tournament organized with the Brazilian Clubs Committee (CBC) to forward basketball and continue to build the future of this sport in Brazil.

For the 2019 edition, the city of Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the CBI. The tournament will take place at the Tijuca Tênis Clube, where one of the largest competitions at the national level will take place from August 19 to 24, with 16 teams that’ll represent nine states.

The CBI is a CBB competition organized by the Brazilian Confederation. The event will welcome 260 people — athletes, coaches, referees, and officials. This is an unparalleled event that will revolutionize the city for 6 days.

The initiative began in 2017, with the Confederation and the CBC organizing competitions to develop male and female divisions, ages 12 to 21.

The purpose of these competitions is to promote, improve and plan the training activities for athletes in the sub-system of the National Sports System (SND). Other goals are to observe the level of participating team and choose assets for the national teams and their international competitions, as well as bringing together athletes from diverse national regions to share experiences and lift each other up.

All sights are set in this tournament. Gilberto Junior, Olympic Sports Manager of the Tijuca Tênis Clube, talked about the expectations around organizing the tournament and its importance as a means to popularize the sport in Brazil.

“We have great expectations for this championship because we want to promote the sport, not only in the club but also in the city where we live.”

Tijuca has a long-standing tradition in basketball. Although it originally was a tennis club, basketball has become the most practice and popular sport in the club.

“Basketball’s a sport that has President Hildo Magno’s special attention. He’s been following the sport for the last years. As a representative of Olympic sports, we pay attention to it and we welcome everyone to this competition as well as we can. Our doors are always open because our main objective is to cherish the moment. We are thankful to the CBC, who has been supporting and preparing us to be a part of this competition,” stated Gilberto.

Looking back at the club’s history, the formative divisions gave the national team one of the best basketball talents of Brazil —Marcelinho Machado.

This is the third edition in the Tijucano Club, who portrayed their strength by winning the gold medal in 2017. In 2018, it was Club Pinheiros’ turn.

For 2019, the local club coach, Rodrigo Camback, seeks to get another positive result. “We're going to play in a competition that is very balanced, so we must be very prepared, even mentally. These will be very similar games, and we hope to be among the first of the first phase bracket.”

“There's no pressure to organize the event, but the court factor will help us and we're counting on our fans to support us,” assured the coach.

The first phase will have 8 games and will begin on Monday, August 19. Duque De Caixas (PR) will face Club Esperia (SP); Náutico Capibaribe (PE) will play against Minas Tennis Club (MG); Nuestro Club (PE) against Olympico Club (MG); C. R. Flamengo (RJ) against Sport Club de Recife (PE); Corinthians Union (RS) against ASBAVI / Sicoobcredisul (RO); Talia Society (PR) against Botafogo F. R. (RJ), Smile Basketball (MT) against Tijuca Tennis Club (RJ) and Club de Remo (PA) will face S.E. Palmeiras (SP).

All teams play in national competitions and are the main contributors to the national teams. They constantly seek to continue developing basketball with the goal of competing in continental and international tournaments.

FIBA