IWBF U23 zone qualifiers underway - The kids are alright

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - When I bring up the number 23, what's the first thing that pops into your mind? I'm going to take a chance here and guess that it's a well-known basketball player. Michael Jordan or LeBron James, probably. If you're a Real Madrid fan, I'm guessing David Beckham.

23 is also the demarcation line for the only men's junior age group play in the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF). For the women, it's under 25. With a much smaller pool of players across the globe, it isn't feasible, let alone possible, to run the variety of junior competitions that FIBA does from U16 to U20.

Europe selected its participants last week with Turkey taking top honors in the European Championship U22 tournament in Lignano, Italy. Trailing by 5 at halftime of the gold medal game, Turkey overwhelmed the Brits to win going away 53-38. Germany beat Italy 60-31 for the bronze.

Five of eight teams made the cut with fifth place France rounding out the qualifiers. Israel, Spain and The Netherlands will watch from home.

As I write this, qualification tournaments are winding up in Bangkok and Buenos Aires as the IWBF Asia-Oceania and Americas zones whittle down the teams that will move on to the U23 World Championships next June in Toronto.

India competed in its first-ever IWBF tournament, here against Japan. Photo courtesy of IWBF

The upcoming sixth edition will bring the tournament back to where it was first held in 1991. Canada won then and again in 2001 in Blumenau, Brazil. The USA took gold at the next two events, 2005 in Birmingham, UK, and 2009 in Paris.

The defending champions from 2013 in Ankara, Turkey are Germany. Though qualified, the USA did not attend due to security concerns stemming from the situation just across the border in Syria.

AMERICAS ZONE
Going 5-0 with one game left on Saturday in the double round-robin format in Buenos Aires, the Americans will be back.

So far, they've handled each opponent with relative ease with another game against first time participant Chile on Friday and Argentina on Saturday. They've proven to have a variety of scorers but the main man has been Kyle Gribble, who's been consistent with three 20+ games, averaging 21.5 through four played.

Less consistent but growing was Brazil's Francisco da Souza who scored 10, 27, and 44 points in his first three games, an average of 27 per game.

Argentina were the host team in Buenos Aires for the IWBF Americas Zone U23 Championship. Photo courtesy of IWBF

Day 1 Scores:
Brazil 38-64 USA
Argentina 51-27 Chile

Day 2 Scores:
USA 96-31 Chile
Argentina 29-60 Brazil

Day 3 Scores:
Brazil 81-26 Chile
USA 69-18 Argentina

Standings at the end of the first round:

[orderedList] USA 3-0 Brazil 2-1 Argentina 1-2 Chile 0-3 [/orderedList]

Day 4 scores: 
USA 65-48 Brazil
Chile 19-59 Argentina

Day 5 scores:
Chile 18-78 USA
Brazil 71-31 Argentina

Day 6 Schedule (Saturday):
Argentina vs USA
Brazil vs Chile

Medal Ceremony 

AOZ
Back in Bangkok, Japan will meet Iran in the final on Saturday after defeating Thailand 61 - 37. Iran, led by Mohammadhassan Sayari's 27 points, dispatched Australia 64-59.

That puts a higher value on the bronze medal which will be contested by Australia and Thailand with the last spot in Toronto on the line.

The AOZ tourney featured an impressive six teams with India making its international debut at any level. With little hope of advancing to Canada but with tremendous opportunity to advance its nascent wheelchair basketball program which has made great strides, this will be a milestone in the development of the game there. Thailand had home court advantage but would have to go against countries with much more experience and resources including Australia, China, Iran, and Japan.

To make the semifinal with a chance to make the World Championship is a huge accomplishment for Thailand.

The U23 tournament is a view of future Paralympic rosters. And given what's been on display. The kids are alright.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

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