TEHRAN – Iran’s men’s team humiliated Thailand 85-37 at the 2019 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Asia Oceania Championships in Thai city Pattaya on Tuesday.

Iran’s Mohammadhassan Sayari scored a match-high 20 points and Pongsakorn Sripirom led Thailand with 21 points.

Iran started the event with a win over China but suffered two successive defeats against Japan and Australia.

Team Melli will play South Korea on Wednesday.

Also, Iran’s women’s team lost to Thailand 51-34.

The Iranian women, who have already defeated Cambodia and India, will meet Afghanistan on Wednesday.  

The IWBF Asia Oceania zone has four spots available for men and three for women at Tokyo 2020, with one spot in each already allocated to Japan as the host nation.

Fourteen men's teams and an event-record eight women's teams will compete at the competitions, taking place at the Eastern National Sports Center and are scheduled to conclude on December 7.

In the men's competition, the six top-ranked teams - Australia, China, Iran, Japan, South Korea and Thailand - will play in Division A, which will be a single round-robin to determine first to sixth place in the ranking.

The other eight teams - Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia - are drawn into two pools of four in Division B.

The top two teams in Division B will become the seventh- and eighth-ranked teams in Division A to make up the quarter-final pairings.