GEORGETOWN - The second edition of the Antilles IBF 3x3 Hoops final took place over the week-end. The 14 teams from 9 countries who won the qualifying events in their country gathered in Georgetown, Guyana for the occasion. The event was organized to help develop, promote and increase participation of basketball within National Federations in the Lesser Antilles, giving opportunities to these countries with tremendous potential who do not often have the chance to travel to play basketball.

Caribbean Basketball Confederation Financial & Marketing Vice President Patrick Haynes explained, "Sport has the power to unite our communities – both the International Basketball Foundation and the Caribbean Basketball Confederation are dedicated and committed to developing and promoting the game of basketball, to bring people together, to unite our communities, and to make basketball the most popular sports in our communities".

The tournament part of the event, hosted by the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation was very successful and extremely competitive with 7 teams in both the female and male categories. Barbados boys and girls won their respective categories with both teams beating Martinique in the Finals.

Barbados took two additional medals home thanks to Kiserian Adams and Alesha Squires winning their respective shoot out contests.

The impressive Dunk contest crowned the Saint-Lucian Jean Pierre Frederick while the Skills Contest was dominated by Guadeloupe's Raymi Coueta.

The Leadership Workshop was held over three days alongside the 3x3 tournament. The workshop, delivered by UK charity The Change Foundation, helped the players discover their leadership style and develop their leadership skills to empower them to use basketball for good in their communities.

The three days were inclusive of interactive basketball drills, leadership activities and discussions about using them to create social change. 

The players were able to interact with one another as peers and develop new relationships as team mates even though they are opponents on court. They practiced public speaking skills, the art of negotiation and influencing as well as understanding the importance of strategy, decision making and inclusion in becoming a true leader. 

Hendrick Heron, who won the Basketball For Good Leadership award stated, "[the workshop] was very enlightening and gave me the will to be a leader. It showed be the skills I will need to become a leader in my community. In this way, I will be able to give back to my country"

Navjeet Sira, Director of The Change Foundation explained her view of the workshop, “the players have been impressive on and off the court. They have been engaged throughout and took time to set realistic goals inspiring us all. They know the value of basketball for good and we look forward to hearing about the implementation of the goals they have set themselves to better their communities. I must commend all the teams for showing great courage to step out of their comfort zones and representing their countries so well. Congratulations to them all.”

16 year-old Lydia Roberts also expressed what she thought of the Leadership Workshop, “I found it very educational. We gained information we can use in our lives and in our communities to make a positive change through basketball and others techniques. It was such a positive environment for learning, making it fun which makes you want to learn more. It was excellent, I loved it and enjoyed every piece of it, especially the great interaction and getting to know others and being able to practice french and other languages.”

Mr Haynes concluded, "the leadership workshops created the platform for the Caribbean youths to help build self-confidence and empowering them to succeed while teaching valuable skills by encouraging introspection and surrounding them with other leaders to help them influence change".

The IBF global partner PEAK supported the event with game uniforms and equipment and FIBA global partner Molten supplied the game balls as well as a ball for each participant to take home.

FIBA