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Serbia and France are good enough to win mens basketball medals at the Olympics. First, they have to get there.The final three places in the 12-team field are on the line in the three Olympic Qualifying Tournaments next week. Serbia and France, who won silver and bronze two years ago in the Basketball World Cup, will be among the favorites to earn berths after falling short last summer.The new format to fill out the Olympics has 18 countries still in the running for spots in Rio. Six teams will be in each tournament, and the three winners will be Brazil bound.Some teams still trying to get there are better than a few who have already qualified. Four of the worlds top 10 will be competing, including France (5th), Serbia (6th), Turkey (8th) and Greece (10th).The Serbs have a powerful team and home-court advantage as they try to lock up a spot that eluded them in last years EuroBasket.We still need to fine-tune our teamwork but thats normal at this stage of preparations. We are going through this process together so that we will still be playing until the end of the OQT, and hopefully after that too, coach Aleksandar Djordjevic told FIBA.com after his team won its three tuneup games.Serbia hosts one tournament in Belgrade that also includes Angola and Puerto Rico in Group A. The Czech Republic, Japan and Latvia are in Group B.In Manila, Philippines, its: Turkey, Canada and Senegal in Group A; with France, New Zealand and the hosts in Group B.The Turin, Italy field: Greece, Mexico and Iran in Group A; Italy, Croatia and Tunisia in Group B.Each team will play the others in its group, with the top two finishers in each advancing to the semifinals. The tournament champions will then be drawn into the Olympic field, with two slated to end up in a group with the U.S.A look at some top contenders:BELGRADE, SERBIASERBIA: The hosts swept a home-and-home with France and beat Greece, another top contender, in their warmup play. Serbia has one of Europes top point guards in Milos Teodosic and a top young prospect in Denver Nuggets All-Rookie selection Nikola Jokic, but will miss injured Timberwolves forward Nemanja Bjelica and Spurs center Boban Marjanovic, who is a free agent.PUERTO RICO: Longtime guards J.J. Barea of the Dallas Mavericks and Carlos Arroyo should again provide the strength for the Puerto Ricans.MANILA, PHILIPPINESFRANCE: Tony Parker wants to cap his international career with an Olympic medal. The French failed to earn their chance playing on home soil last summer when Spain beat them in the Eurobasket semifinals, but stand a good chance now if they can hold on until the arrival of Nicolas Batum, who is an NBA free agent and wont be available until after he signs a contract on July 7.TURKEY: Their tough defense, anchored by NBA center Omer Asik in the middle, always gives the Turks a chance to stay in games. They gave the U.S. its toughest test in the 2014 Basketball World Cup.CANADA: With Timberwolves star Andrew Wiggins sitting out, the Canadians could regret not locking up a spot when they blew a late lead against Venezuela in last years FIBA Americas semifinals.TURIN, ITALYGREECE: Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is a do-everything star and Sacramentos Kostas Koufos a solid center for a Greek team that scored a pair of victories over Turkey during its pre-tournament schedule.ITALY: The Italians havent reached the Olympics since winning silver in 2004. But they have plenty of shooting behind NBA players Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli and former No. 1 pick Andrea Bargnani, a top coach in Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, and the backing of a home crowd to get them there this time.---Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney---This story has been corrected to show that the Italy tournament is in Turin.Reds Jerseys 2020 . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Fake Reds Jerseys .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. https://www.cheapredsjerseys.us/ . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Reds Jerseys 2019 . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. Custom Cincinnati Reds Jerseys . Aside from the trilogy main event title fight, there are a number of intriguing matchups in the heavyweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions.Surrey 95 for 2 v YorkshireScorecardYorkshires batting line-up is often notable less for who is in it than who is absent. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root are seldom glimpsed playing for the White Rose these days. The same might soon be true of Gary Ballance, if his unexpected England recall goes according to plan.Now Kane Williamson has joined that trio as an unwanted absentee. Worn down by his arduous schedule - playing in all three formats of the county game is an unforgiving task, especially for international captains returning from a busy home season, the World Twenty20 and the IPL - Williamson and Yorkshire agreed that he would miss this Championship game. His fourth consecutive season at the club will end with Fridays T20 at Trent Bridge. Its very simple. We just thought it would aid him and be the most beneficial thing for him to have a rest. Theres nothing sinister, its as simple as that, Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie said.In an ideal world wed obviously want him to play. But we felt it was in his best interests and everyones best interests that he had a couple of days away to spend some time with his partner and clear his mind a bit. Were fully supportive of that. Hes a great lad and there was some really good, honest communication. Thats the good thing about it: hes confident enough coming to us as a support staff and saying lets open this conversation up.For Yorkshire, at least, the strength of the relationship between player and club indicates Williamsons desire to return to in the future. But the temptation to view Williamsons decision as an indictment of the demands of the modern cricketer are obvious. It does highlight that scheduling is an issue, Gillespie said. Its been an incredibly busy period for everyone. Everybody gets affected with illnesses, injuries and the like.Williamsons decision was particularly ill-timed for Yorkshire: not only are three players absent with England but Travis Head was unable to get his visa processed in time to play against Surrey.dddddddddddd The upshot is that Azeem Rafiq, who has a first-class average of 22.10, is down to bat at No. 5, although the sight of David Willey at No. 9 shows that Yorkshire still retain batting depth.For the proudest of cricketing counties, this feels like a decisive juncture in the season. Last weeks defeat to Middlesex at Scarbrough, while only Yorkshires first of the season, highlighted that the team are not quite purring as during title-winning campaigns in the last two seasons.We had a really good chat after the game, Gillespie said. It was an opportunity to have a midseason review. We felt, being honest, that weve played some decent cricket in patches but we havent quite taken those opportunities weve had to take the bull by the horns, as we have in the last couple of years. Thats something were aware of. Weve spoken about, as a batting group, the need to go big if you get in. Weve had a lot of scores between 40 and 80 but havent had lads going on to get those daddy hundreds to really put the pressure on the opposition. Thats something we can be better at.On the first morning at The Oval, Yorkshire bowled and fielded with a zest not to squander the chance to become the first side to win a hat-trick of titles since they themselves last managed the feat, in 1968. Andrew Hodds diving catch, snaffling Dominic Sibley down the leg side, was particularly impressive. But after 23.1 overs of funereal batting in the gloom, during which Surrey stumbled to 36 for 2, Zafar Ansari and Aaron Finch then added 59 at a run a ball before the showers intervened.And while Yorkshire regretted Williamsons absence, Surrey had a surprise omission of their own. Arun Harinath, whose record of 620 runs at 36.47 apiece this season is bettered only by Kumar Sangakkara, is not the complaining type, but had plenty of cause to be miffed about being dropped. ' ' '