Russia's national basketball team is fit to fight for its London 2012 berth, former Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said Sunday.
The team arrived in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Sunday to take part in the qualification tournament, which starts Monday and runs through July 8.
"I, personally, feel very well," Kirilenko said. "It is seen that the guys are ready too. It is seen that that everybody is running and jumping well."
Some luggage including the team uniforms briefly went missing in the airport earlier Sunday, but Kirilenko said the team remained unfazed.
"We somehow understood that it would be this way when Venezuela got the right to hold the qualifiers," he said. "There is nothing to complain about. We will be working."
Venezuela defeated bids from Lithuania, Macedonia and Angola to host the tournament.
Only three of the 12 participating teams will qualify for London. Russia will play group stage games against the Dominican Republic and South Korea.
A national team player since 2000, Kirilenko won the 2007 Eurobasket with Russia and was the part of the team that finished third at the 2011 tournament.
Russia has never won an Olympic medal, finishing seventh in Sydney in 2000, fifth in Beijing and failing to qualify for the others.
