GUAYAQUIL (Ecuador) – The city of Aysén, Chile, is a special place for Ecuador's women’s national team. There, with the U15 team, they achieved the silver medal in the most recent edition of the category’s South American Tournament.

This position allowed the “Minitrí” to make history; for the first time, they qualified to a FIBA U16 Americas Women’s Championship that will also be hosted in Aysén and where four spots to the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup are up for grabs.

Now it’s time to travel to Aysén again and overcome the second place of the South American Tournament to get a World Cup ticket, and the Ecuadorian Basketball Federation (FEB, for its Spanish acronym) continues to work hard toward that goal.

“The experience the girls acquired by playing at important national tournaments have helped them to overcome difficult stages,” said national team coach Miguel Salvitelli, who also commented that after the South American Tournament last year they've continued to work hard to be ready for the future. “It's a high-level competition where they must do their best effort. They've not only worked on the physical aspects, but have also received nutrition and psychology talks, and we hope that this helps them to be focused to reach this tournament's objective,” said the coach to FIBA.basketball.

 
This position in the South American Tournament enabled the “Minitrí” to write a new page after defeating teams like Argentina and Venezuela; allowing them to be second and, for the first time, qualify to a FIBA U16 Americas Championship.

The continental championship will take place from June 16 to 22 at Aysén’s Polideportivo 21 de Abril and will feature Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico. Ecuador is part of Group A with Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The four best teams of the FIBA Women’s U16 Americas Championship will qualify to the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2020.

According to Salvitelli, in recent months, the national team participated in friendly games against the Chilean team, which were of great help to learn the state of the team at an international level.

The FEB, as well as the national federations, feel that this is the future of the Ecuadorian national teams: playing friendlies in these categories and using these experiences to nourish the accomplishments of the senior teams that will play in future international tournaments with the goal of getting as far as they can to reach the objectives they work for day after day.

 
The yellow, blue and reds’ schedule will be as follows: on Sunday, June 16 they’ll face Canada; on Monday, June 17 they’ll play against Puerto Rico; and on Tuesday, June 18 they’ll conclude their group with Brazil.

On Thursday 12 girls of the ages of 15 and 16 will travel to Aysén. They are Viviana Prado Mora, Rebeca Carrión Medina, Evelyn Pilay Zambrano, Daniela Argüello, Samy Bacilio, Paulina Vaicekauskas, Blanca Quiñonez Mina, Joseline Naranjo Tayo, Karima Valencia, Sarahi Alejandra Mosquera, Kennya Mora Solano, and Justin Scarleth Sampedro. The coaching staff is Miguel Salvitelli Miguel, Víctor González Nuñez, and Rodolfo Anel Parra Hernández.

“Preparing has been hard. We've had around 10 microcycles with three training sessions from Thursday to Sunday. We're coming to this World Cup qualifying stage with more expectations. We realized that we can get farther after winning the silver in the last South American Tournament. That makes us face everything with more responsibility,” said to FIBA.basketball Daniela Argüello, the 15-year-old team member that has played basketball since she was 7. Her dream now is to continue to add achievements while wearing her country's colors.

The national team also received a talk before the championship by an expert in Sports Psychology and senior national women's team member Anabell Barahona — a great experience for the players before the task that lies ahead in Aysén.

“We have the support of our technical staff. Miguel Salvitelli is showing us the way as players and as people. (We have) our parents’ presence, they are always by our side; as well as the Federation's President, José Arévalo, who helps us with everything. We’ll be facing national teams such as Canada, Puerto Rico and Brazil. They're strong, but we’ll give our best to bring joy to our nation. The commitment is with ourselves. The objective is clear and we're going to make it. I'm very proud of the team and I'm certain that we're going for our goal at the Americas Championship,” said the shooting and point guard.

FIBA