UDINE (FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship 2016) – Latvia will be looking to make an impression and put themselves amongst the medal contenders at the FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship 2016 in Udine.

They will benefit from having a number of history-makers on board who represented their country last month in what was a first-ever global appearance by way of participation at the FIBA U17 Women’s World Championship in Zaragoza. That was made possible by a fifth-place finish in Matosinhos last year and now Latvia could be out to make another deep run in this competition.

The powerful Aleksa Gulbe is likely to be the main protagonist in such a challenge, after pouring in almost 16 points per game in Zaragaoza. Support will come from other attendees in Mara Mote, Jete Nulle and Nikola Ozola, who all celebrated racking up maiden victories at the world level in Spain.

Latvia have reached the latter stages of both the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship 2016 and FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship 2016 so far, but have just missed the podium and will not want to finish the summer thinking about what might have been.

Their opening group contains defending champions Czech Republic who have a very new look team, with only Anezka Kopecka likely to be back to help her country defend the cherished crown they took last summer.

Anezka Kopecka will get the chance to help defend the title for Czech Republic

They will have some talented scorers on board to replace the golden generation and during the preparation games, it has been largely Katerina Galickkova and Barbora Jindrova who have shown they have real offensive teeth.

When it comes to continuity and potentially causing a surprise, perhaps Belarus can make some noise and cause difficulties for the more established nations in the Group. After all, more than half of the roster that won promotion last year in Ohrid and Struga is eligible to continue and reap the rewards of their efforts in the summer of 2015. Leader of the pack will be the all-action Kseniya Malashka, who led Belarus in rebounds, assists and steals on the way up from Division B.

Serbia will place their hopes primarily into the hands of center Marta Vulovic, since her near two-metre towering frame can cause match-up headaches for her opponents. She played at the last edition of the event and will be more potent this time around, having looked largely unstoppable during the warm-up games.

FIBA