MANILA – Manila Chooks has decided to back out from the FIBA 3x3 Lipik Challenger.
The "hard decision" was made as the quartet of Chico Lanete, Mac Tallo, Zach Huang, and Dennis Santos could not get their Croatian visas in time for the event happening this weekend.
"There are things that we have no control of and this is one of them," lamented Chooks 3x3 owner Ronald Mascariñas on Thursday. "Since 2019, this is the first time that we had to pull out from a FIBA 3x3 tournament and the players were really looking forward to it.”
He said the challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic “made it hard for us to obtain our delegation's visas”.
The Manila Chooks squad applied for Croatian visas on May 7, but with no Croatian embassy in the Philippines, the process had to be done in Jakarta.
As of Wednesday night, the visas have yet to arrive.
"The boys have been raring to bounce back after Doha but there are things na hindi natin kontrolado. Bawi na lang, (we cannot control of. We hope to bounce back) that's all we can do right now," rued Manila Chooks TM head trainer Aldin Ayo.
FIBA has yet to announce the details about the next 3x3 pro circuit. (PNA)
