Guiao shuns Olympic dream

It’s hard to think about the Olympics at this point

YENG Guiao is not yet thinking of Phl 5’s Olympic chances at this point. AP

FOSHAN, China — After suffering a pair of embarrassing losses, the last thing on Yeng Guiao’s mind right now is clinching an outright spot in the Tokyo Olympics next year.

The fiery Gilas Pilipinas head coach said the road to the Olympics remains littered with a lot of challenges, especially after world-class teams Italy and Serbia slapped them with a reality check during the International Basketball Federation Basketball World Cup here.

Bannered by NBA stars Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli, the Italians crushed the Filipinos, 108-62, in the opening salvo of this prestigious 32-nation conclave.

Then, Serbia asserted its might, clobbering the Filipinos by 59 points, 126-67, to cement its status as the fourth-best team in the world and the overwhelming favorite to knock the crown off the head of the United States.

With the setbacks, Gilas Pilipinas has to prevail over Angola and sweep its next two assignments in the classification for 17th to 32nd places to have a fighting chance of emerging as the best-performing Asian team.

China, however, has an inside track after defeating Ivory Coast in the opener, 70-55.

Guiao said at this point, making it to the Olympics is the least among his many concerns.

“It’s hard to think about the Olympics at this point,” said Guiao, whose wards tallied the same result as other Asian teams in the competition like Iran, Jordan and South Korea.

“I don’t want to speculate about the Olympics. I think China has an inside track already.”

Guiao said instead of thinking about the Olympics, they would rather channel their energy on preparing for Angola, which they will face in the final day of the first round on Thursday at the GBA Sports and Cultural Center here.

After all, a victory over the African champions would give them the confidence they badly need for the classification phase, which would be played at the 18,000-seater Wukesog Arena in Beijing starting next week.

“I think what we can do now is to focus on our next game against Angola and after that, focus on the next two games in Beijing,” he said.

“We have to think about it and prepare. There are a lot of factors that will come in and there are a lot of factors that we cannot control. We have to be ready.”