'Beacon of light': African upstarts South Sudan Paris-bound

It was a chant that Luol Deng waited years to lead. He stood along the side of the South Sudan locker room after the team's run in the World Cup was over, cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled the same thing, over and over.

"Where we goin'?" he shouted."Paris," the players all responded.

Deng's vision when he founded the national team about a decade ago was to use basketball as a beacon of hope for his homeland. And his vision never seemed more real than on Saturday.

A struggling country just 12 years removed from gaining its independence - making it the youngest nation in the world - is headed to the Paris Olympics as the automatic qualifier from Africa. Carlik Jones finished with 26 points, 15 assists and seven rebounds, and South Sudan rolled past Angola 101-78 on Saturday in the final game of the World Cup for both teams.

The win, combined with Egypt's 88-86 loss to New Zealand, clinched the Olympic berth for South Sudan as the highest-ranked African team in the tournament.

And later on Saturday, Japan joined the Olympic field as the highest-ranked World Cup team from Asia - clinching that spot by holding on for an 80-71 win over Cape Verde.

"This team is a beam of light, like I keep on saying," South Sudan coach Royal Ivey said."We're bringing unity, camaraderie, love and friendship to this country. This country's only been independent for 12 years. To do this, for Luol Deng to put this together, this is incredible.This is incredible."

South Sudan and Japan joined Australia (the Oceania automatic qualifier) and France (the host nation) as teams to have clinched spots in the 12-team Olympic men's basketball field.

"I love this team," Ivey said. "Man, this is a great feeling. This is a great feeling. I wish I could bottle this up right now."

Japan head coach Tom Hovasse said his team was now "on everybody's radar" after qualifying for the Paris Olympics on Saturday as the highest-placed Asian team.

Tournament co-host Japan beat Cape Verde 80-71 in Okinawa to punch its ticket to Paris with its third win of the tournament, putting it out of reach of its nearest challengers.

Japan is ranked No 36 in the world and had not qualified for the Olympic basketball tournament - except as host - for 48 years. The Japanese came from behind late to beat both Finland and Venezuela, and Hovasse said his team had"gained the respect of our opponents".

"I think we showed the world what we can do,and now we're on everybody's radar, we're on everybody's map," said the American, who led Japan's women's team to the Olympic silver medal in Tokyo two years ago.

"Gaining respect is a big step, winning games at this level is a huge step, so I'm really proud of what we did."

Agencies Via Xinhua