Pinoy ref one of four Asians in Fiba roster

MANILA, Philippines - Not just Gilas Pilipinas, but also a Filipino referee will be in action in the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

Ferdinand “Bong” Pascual will be the first Filipino ref to work on the men’s world basketball championship for the first time in a long time, one of four from Asia that made the 38-man officiating roster for the Spanish world meet.

The other Asian refs are Yuji Hirahara of Japan, Mohammad Al Amiri of Kuwait and Yevgeniy Mikheyev of Kazakhstan.

The 34 other refs come from 24 countries across FIBA’s four other continental zones – America, Europe, Africa and Oceania.

“This group of referees has been carefully selected and brings the highest standards of officiating that is to be expected for basketball’s biggest competition,” said Carl Jungebrand, the FIBA head of refereeing.

The group consists of tested refs with ages ranging from 27 to 50 and an average refereeing experience of 11.6 years.

Pascual, 44, a former University of Baguio Cardinal from Cabanatuan City, has been an international referee for 11 years now.

He’s assigned to the Group C competition in Bilbao.

“I got lucky and now I’m so excited,” said Pascual, looking forward to officiate a game featuring the US team.

The officials attend a two-day camp (28-29 August) in Madrid prior to the start of the competition.

Other federations getting nomination for the refs pool are Australia, Canada, Italy, the USA, Spain, Puerto Rico, Serbia, France, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Latvia, Argentina, Uruguay, Croatia, Ukraine, Angola, Slovenia and Mexico.

With more than one nomination are the USA, Brazil, Spain, France, Puerto Rico, Canada, Greece and Australia.