GB take their first international 3×3 steps
With little fanfare GB basketball announced on 3 August that they had selected a men’s and women’s team to take part in the qualifiers for the U18 3×3 Europe Cup. As far as 3x3ballers is aware, this is the first time GB has been involved in a national teams 3×3 event.
Players identified by ‘elite level’ coaches attended selection camps over 5 weeks at the University of Worcester. After being finalised, both teams then attended their respective qualifying tournaments. The women went to Riga, Latvia and the men went to Szolnok, Hungary.
The men made made it to the quarter finals of their tournament before being knocked-out by Israel. The team’s final position was 7 out of 12 which was not enough to make the Europe Cup.
(L to R) Jonathan Brown (188cm), Adria Amabilino-Perez (200cm), Callan Low (189cm), Robin Bedford (174cm)
The women did not make it out of their pool and finished 12 out of 12 in the tournament.
(L to R) Macy Spinks (162cm), Ebony Horton (171cm), Tia Freeman (181cm), Shawnisay Millar (180cm)
Whilst neither team made it to the Europe Cup, all these young players have embarked on a journey that could lead to them being at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020. We certainly welcome that, at the junior level at least, it looks like GB are now taking 3×3 basketball seriously.
Curiously, close inspection of the list of teams that took part in both qualifying tournaments, the country of Wales appears. Now geography may not be 3x3ballers strongest skill but the last we looked Wales was still part of Great Britain. Those with some historical knowledge will remember that when all the home federations agreed to join together to form a permanent GB team post London 2012, Wales did indeed opt out. However, in 2014 they reversed that decision and committed to the GB project. So it is puzzling to see Wales have entered their own 3×3 teams.