IND - Twelve in fray for inaugural FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women
PUNE (FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women) - Twelve teams drawn into two groups of six teams each will match wits in the inaugural FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women to be played in this historic city near India's financial capital Mumbai from Nov 30-Dec 6, 2009. The draw for the Championship was conducted on Monday, along side the draw for the FIBA ...
PUNE (FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women) - Twelve teams drawn into two groups of six teams each will match wits in the inaugural FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women to be played in this historic city near India's financial capital Mumbai from Nov 30-Dec 6, 2009.
The draw for the Championship was conducted on Monday, along side the draw for the FIBA Asia U16 Championship (for Men) at Malaysian city Johor Bahru, which will host the men's event.
"Since this was the inaugural Championship, we decided to conduct a draw for the preliminary round," explained FIBA Asia Secretary General Dato' Yeoh Choo Hock.
"From the next Championship, we will consider dividing the teams will be divided into Level I and II like how we do for the other women's events," he added.
The top two teams from the Championship will represent FIBA Asia in the inaugural FIBA U17 World Championship for Women to be played in France from July 16-25, 2010.
Ten of the teams figuring in the FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women played in the recently concluded 23rd FIBA Asia Women Championship.
Singapore and Hong Kong replace Lebanon and Uzbekistan from the fray that played at Chennai, but neither of them are new comers to FIBA Asia competitions especially among women.
Hosts India have been drawn in Group A, which also features China and Chinese Taipei. Both Singapore and Hong Kong have been drawn in Group A with Philippines completing the challenge.
Korea and Japan head the competition in Group B with challenge coming from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Kazakhstan.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals will play for the gold medal and the losers for the bronze.
The teams playing the gold medal game would have already qualified for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.
Groupings for Preliminary Round:
Group A: China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Singapore
Group B: Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka.
S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia