PRAGUE (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Czech Republic head coach Ronen Ginzburg on Friday announced the 12-man roster that will travel to Belgrade with the aim of earning a ticket to Rio 2016 through next week's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).

Stars Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely headline the roster which includes 10 players from the Czech team that clinched a historical-best seventh-place finish at last September's FIBA EuroBasket 2015 to gain a berth at the OQT.

The new additions are wingers Martin Kriz and Lukas Palyza, both getting the chance to step out at their first major tournament with the senior national team. They are replacing veteran Lubos Barton who retired this year and sharp-shooter David Jelinek, whose omission from the OQT roster came as a relative surprise.

"Everyone knows David is a good player but he missed big part of the preparations and we have many players at his position, so we could not be sure he would get big minutes and he needs playing time to get into rhythm and show what he is capable of," Ginzburg explained.

"Cutting David was a really hard decision because he has so much quality but the role that was available was not ideal for him. On the national team you need to be prepared to come on at any point during the 40 minutes and perform instantly. At the end it is my decision and I know that if we don't do well in the tournament, people will ask why David was not on the team."

The Czechs played their final warm-up game in Prague on Thursday night, cruising past Mexico 82-53 as Jelinek led all scorers in his last appearance with the national team this summer, with 15 points. Vesely finished with 12 points while Blake Schilb added 10.

Ginzburg's men travel to Belgrade at the weekend and face Latvia in their opening game in OQT Group B, on Tuesday. The following day they take on Japan and, if they advance from their group, they will go up against one of Angola, Puerto Rico or Serbia in one of the Semi-Finals.

FIBA