BEIJING (DPA) - Basketball World Cup hosts China have been eliminated in the group stage of their home tournament with a 72-59 loss to Venezuela on Wednesday (Sept 4) in Beijing.

The Chinese side built around former NBA professional Yi Jianlian are out after losing two of their three games in Group A.

Venezuela in contrast pass into the last 16, as do Poland who maintained their 100 per cent record 80-69 over the Ivory Coast.

China will now target a berth in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo through the matches for the teams placing 17-32 in the tournament.

They are the first hosts knocked out in the opening round since Japan 13 years ago.