(Beijing, April 16) The Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, which is known for its unique appearance and advanced facilities and equipment, received the first group of visitors on April 16. At a press conference for the "Good Luck Beijing" CNPC 2008 Women's Basketball International Invitational Tournament held here this morning, Du Juan, Basketball Competition Manager of the Wukesong venue operation team, Chen Siyao, deputy secretary-general of the team, and Li Chunren, deputy PR director of the local community, gave brief accounts of the venue preparations, lots-drawing of the competition as well as media operation for the seven-day tournament. After the press conference, the media was given a tour of the basketball gymnasium and its supporting facilities.

The 2008 Women's Basketball International Invitational Tournament, scheduled to open on April 19, will be the first sports event to be held after the completion of the newly-built Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium. A total of six teams, namely World No.1 and No.2 the United States and Australia, China, Korea, Cuba and New Zealand, will participate in the tournament. Among these teams all but Cuba have qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games, making the competition an important pre-Olympic dress rehearsal among the world powerhouses.

According to the organizing committee, the participating teams will arrive in Beijing from tomorrow on, making it a total of 72 athletes, 30 team officials and 63 technical officials. The tournament will be divided into two parts of preliminaries and finals, with the top two from the preliminaries, contested by the single round robin system, competing for the gold, and the third- and fourth-place finishers fighting for the bronze. The finals will be held on April 26.

In addition, the draw for the Olympic basketball competition will be made on the day of the finals. So far, nine men's teams from China, Spain, Angola, the USA, Argentina, Iran, Russia, Lithuania and Australia, and seven women's teams from China, Australia, the USA, Korea, Russia, Mali and New Zealand have qualified for the Olympic Games. The remaining Olympic tickets will distributed at the Olympic qualification tournaments to be held in June and July.