Angola name new men’s basketball team coach

Angola appoint new men’s basketball coach

JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (ANA) – The Angolan Basketball Federation (Fab) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Josep Claros as the new coach of the men’s senior national team.

The Spaniard was hired in the wake of the resignation of Brazilian Jose Neto, who guided the team throughout the 2021 AfroBasket (African Basketball Championship) qualifiers in November and February.

According to Fab, Claros’ agreement with the former African champions will run until the end of this year’s AfroBasket set to take place in Kigali, Rwanda from August 25 to September 4.

Before the African Championship, Angola will compete for a place at the Tokyo Olympic Games when they enter one World Basketball’s four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQT).

The Angolans have been drawn in Group B of the Lithuanian OQT alongside Slovenia and Poland. Only four of the 24 OQT teams will qualify for the Tokyo Games.

Angola last played at the Olympics in 2008.

Claros becomes the second Spaniard to coach the Angolans after his countryman Moncho Lopez powered Angola to the second-place at 2015 AfroBasket.

It will be Claro’s first African basketball experience.

In December 2014, the Barcelona native had reached an agreement to coach Egypt, but the two parties terminated the deal even before Claros travelled to Cairo.

As well as leading a number of clubs in North, Central and South America and Asia, Claros has coached the national teams of El Salvador and Mexico.

As coach of Mexico (2010-13), Claros steered the Mexicans to a silver medal at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman