VEN - Salazar narrows his options

 WIN a trip to the FIBA World Championship Finals weekend

MAR DEL PLATA (FIBA World Championship) – Venezuela coach Nestor Salazar has released Gregory Vallenilla and Askia Jones from his roster for the FIBA World Championship. 
 
Vallenilla, from Guaiqueries de Margarita, and Jones, from Gaiteros del Zulia, join star Diego Guevara in leaving the squad with Guevara having recently undergone shoulder surgery. 
 
Salazar’s squad has now been trimmed to 13 and is currently training in Argentina, where they will play the Super Four tournament on Sunday and Monday. The quadrangular tournament will take place in the Santa Fe province and also involves Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand. 

"We landed in Argentina with the main objective to improve our game. That’s our intention, but it will not be easy," Salazar said.

The Venezuelans are hoping to bounce back from the South American Championship earlier this month, when they finished a disappointing fourth as hosts. 

"We had lot of meetings and we talked about the positives and negatives that we have," Salazar added. “We need to forget the South American Championship failure as we want to think about the next FIBA World Championship in Japan. 

"The players are ready to play. We’ve improved our morale and we are going to work with team spirit - enjoying and doing the things that we like." 
 
Venezuela’s squad now features Victor Diaz, Pablo Machado, Ernesto Mijares, Richard Lugo, Tomas Aguilera, Oscar Torres, Carlos Cedeno, Miguel Marriaga, Hector Romero, Alejandro Barrios, Hebert Bayona, Carlos Morris and Rafael Guevara. 
 
One more of them will be cut from the squad before Salazar names his final 12-man roster for the FIBA World Championship, where Venezuela face Argentina, France, Lebanon, Nigeria and Serbia & Montenegro in Group A.

PA Sport
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