Following the cancellation of the 2020 U17 Basketball World Cup by the world governing body due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF), has confirmed their participation in the International Federation of Association Basketball (FIBA) ‘FIBA U17 Skills Challenges.
This was confirmed by veteran administrator Patrick Haynes, Secretary of the Central America and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA) during an official release.
According to Haynes, who also holds the portfolio of FIBA 3×3 Commission Member, “After the FIBA Executive Committee’s decision that the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2020 cannot be held this year, it has been decided to offer an opportunity to the players of this age category to gather with their national team, to train and compete without the need for international travel.
Several national federations are planning to organise a training camp for this age category in the coming months, depending on the local restrictions and in compliance with the FIBA Return to Basketball Guidelines. Therefore, FIBA felt that the FIBA U17 Skills Challenge 2020 could provide an additional motivation and incentive to those young players and strengthen their bonds with the National Team.”
The FIBA U17 Skills Challenges is set to commence from the date of August 17th and will feature boys and girls divisions respectively. It is also to be broadcast on the entity’s digital platform of YouTube. The official rules and regulations for the event have been issued to the respective members.Haynes elaborated, “In addition, the FIBA U17 Skills Challenges 2020 will be broadcast on FIBA’s digital channels (YouTube) thus providing an opportunity also to the national federations to be present and promote their brand and their activity during these challenging times. The FIBA U17 Skills Challenges 2020 (both genders) are scheduled to take place during the week of 17 August 2020. The sixteen (16) teams already qualified for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2020 and FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2020 are automatically qualified for the FIBA U17 Skills Challenges 2020.”
He added, “In addition to the 16 teams already qualified, FIBA has decided to also offer an opportunity to participate to all interested national federations around the world. Namely, each FIBA Regional Office will organise Regional Qualifiers during the week of 10 August 2020 to qualify one (1) men’s and one (1) women’s team from each Region. National coaches Junior Hercules and Lugard Mohan have been identified by the GABF as the primary point of contact for the recruitment and execution of this qualifier. The GABF will be selecting five boys and five girls born on and after January 1st, 2003 to represent Guyana in this regional qualifier.”
“The GABF now awaits information regarding the final phase of the FIBA U17 Skills Challenges 2020 from the FIBA Americas Regional Office including the FIBA U17 Skills Challenge 2020 Registration forms, Manual and other relevant documents and video materials. Local players can begin to register via the federation’s website at http://guyanabasketball.com/en/2020/07/01/fiba-u17-skills-challenge-2020-americas-qualifiers/”, he further divulged.
