Eight national players, who represented China at last year's Wuhan FIBA Asia Women's Championship, have been included in the final lineup of the upcoming 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT). National squad's head coach Tom Mahern has confirmed the decsion.

China is currently ranked as the world's eighth best women's basketball team by FIBA. The twelve countries participating in the WOQT will compete for the remaining five slots for the Rio Olympics in August. This year's WOQT will be played in June 13 to 19 in Nantes, France.

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Maher, who led the Australian women's national basketball team to an Olympic bronze and a silver medal in 1996 and 2000 respectively, has called up the likes of Mengran Sun and Ting Shao. Nan Chen, 6-foot-6, who is returning from national team retirement, will be a major boost for China.

Nan, 33, decided to retire before the 2015 FIBA Asia Women Championship to focus on motherhood and coaching. However, the former Chicago Sky player chose to return to the court, especially after seeing her team lose to Japan twice last summer.

Nan had been performing very well during the team's preparations in friendly matches. She played for the national squad at the 2013 FIBA Asia Women's Championship in Bangkok, Thailand. China ended up with third-place.

China is in the WOQT Group D along with world No. 31 Venezuela and Spain, which is currently the third-highest ranked in the world. The Chinese will need at least one victory in the Group Phase to advance to the Final Phase. A win in the Quarter-Finals or in the Fifth-Game would guarantee the Chinese team a place in the Rio Olympics.

Chen has competed in three editions of the Olympics - Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012) - and it appears that the Australian coach needs her experience to lead the team. 

TagsChen Nan, WNBA, wcba, woqt, chinese women's national basketball team, Rio Olympics 2016