CHI - Hometown heroes?

Puerto Montt (FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) - Since the advent of the FIBA World Championship for Junior Women, first held in 1985 in Colorado Springs, Chile had never qualified to take part.

In fact, until last year they had never even qualified to take part in a continental championship for junior women. So when the South American country was awarded the right to host the 2011 FIBA U19 world championship, and given direct qualification, it seemed they had received a gift they could never achieve themselves.

Coach Cristian Santander and his team certainly didn't look at it that way, though, defeating Mexico and Costa Rico at last year's Americas U18 Championship for Women held, incidentally, in Colorado Springs.

Chile's performance earned them a place in the top four, meaning they would have qualified under their own steam no matter where the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women was being held.

While the Chileans will hardly be favourites when the world championship tips off on 21 July, with 10 players returning from last year's event, including star forward Javiera Morales and shooting guard Fernanda Serrano, they will take a lot of confidence and continuity into the tournament.

Coach Santander has strong belief in his team. "We bring back 10 players from the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 team," he said. "We expect that all our players can have a good championship, if we really play as a team. I feel that we do not depend on one or two players."

This team aspect is shown by Chile's scoring spread last year in Colorado Springs, where no player averaged in double figures, but five players scored between five and 10 points per game.

Two players to watch are the 'babies' of the team, 182cm power forward Catalina Abuyeres and 178cm small forward Jenifer Fuentes, both of whom will play some important minutes according to coach Santander. "The two (new players) that complete the roster are 15 years old. They are players with great potential and we have a lot of confidence in them."

Abuyeres was the leading rebounding for the Chilean team who finished fourth at last year's South American U15 Championship for Women, while Fuentes was second in rebounding and first in assists.

The pair were both top five in tournament rebounding at this year's U17 South American championship as Chile again finished a credible fourth, highlighting their strength and athleticism beyond their years.

Coach Santander knows his team faces an enormous task against Australia, France and Nigeria in Group C of the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women. "We have videos of the friendly games played by our rivals. We know that they are very good teams," he said.

"France should fight for the first position of the group with Australia; and Nigeria, who field a team with 12 players who perform in high school and junior college in the USA, will be a hard rival for us."

Like many coaches preparing for this tournament though, coach Santander knows the most important thing is for his team to perform to their own strengths. "The key will be how we handle the anxiety," he said.

"We have to be very focussed on defending with a high level of intensity if we are going to beat our powerful rivals. At the offensive end we must play our possessions through and have good shot selection. We must be able to impose our preferred tempo and rhythm of play on the game."

Given the strong performances of host nations in the past two years of FIBA World Championship competitions - where the home team has won three silver medals - an upset victory or two, and a trip to the Eight Finals is not out of the question for the Chileans.

FIBA