Ten down and 14 more to go.

A total of 10 countries have qualified for the 24-team FIBA World Men's Basketball Championship in Istanbul, Turkey next year.

From the Asian zone, the three teams that secured berths are the Islamic Republic of Iran, China and Jordan.

Iran, powered by 7-3 Hamed Haddadi of the National Basketball Association's Memphis Grizzlies, waylaid host China, 70-52,in the finals of the 25th FIBA-Asia Championship in Tianjin. Jordan took third place by shellacking Lebanon, 80-66, for a second time in the biennial tournament.

From the African zone, three teams also earned World tickets. They are Angola, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Tunisia.

Angola captured its sixth straight African title by whipping Cote d'Ivoire, 82-72, in the finals of the FIBA-Africa Championship in Tripoli, Libya. Tunisia finished third with an 83-68 decision over Cameroon and earned its first-ever World trip.

Perennial entries Australia and New Zealand, the only teams taking part in the FIBA-Oceania Championship, also have dribbled their way to the quadrennial World competitions next year.

The two countries split their two-game series but NZ emerged as the Oceania titlist under a new format that called for the winner to be determined through a point differential process in lieu of the traditional third-game tiebreaker. The Australia Boomers played host to Game 1 and won, 84-77, but New Zealand Tall Blacks got back with a 100-78 victory on their home floor in Game 2 to take the series with a plus 15 margin.

The United States, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, and Turkey, the host country, are automatic World qualifiers.

Meanwhile, four more World tickets are at stake in the ongoing FIBA-Americas Championship, which began on August 26 and will last till September 6, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

With the U.S. – the defending Tournament of the Americas titlist – sitting it out, there are only 10 countries seeing action. They are Argentina (currently ranked No. 1 in the FIBA men's basketball world rankings), Puerto Rico, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Uruguay, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands.

The four teams in the single-game knockout semifinal round will qualify outright for the 2010 World Championship.

Current NBA players suiting up in the ongoing FIBA-Americas tourney are the Dominican Republic’s Charlie Villanueva (Detroit), Francisco Garcia (Sacramento) and Al Horford (Atlanta), Argentina’s Luis Scola (Houston), Brazil’s Leandro Barbosa (Phoenix) and Anderson Varejao (Cleveland), and Canada’s Joel Anthony (Miami).

Also seeing action are former NBA players Alex Garcia (Brazil), Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico), Daniel Santiago (Puerto Rico), Peter John Ramos (Puerto Rico), Luis Flores (Dominican Republic), Esteban Batista (Uruguay), Oscar Torres (Venezuela), and Horacio Llamas (Mexico).

Another notable name in the Mexico lineup is tree-like Adam Parada, who played for Red Bull during the 2007-08 Philippine Basketball Association wars.