CAIRO - The Egyptian Junior (U-16) Basketball Team for Girls has entered a closed camp in the Olympic Centre in Maadi, south of Cairo, in preparation for the African Basketball Championship, the qualifier for the World Basketball Championship, which will be held in the Egyptian capital on July (22-30). "This camp will continue until the team travel to Turkey from June 28 to July 10 for a final preparation camp there. They will then return to Cairo and enter another closed camp until the start of the tournament," Hussein Morsi, the Vice-President of the Egyptian Basketball Federation (EBF), told the Egyptian Mail. Morsi explained that the National U-19 Team for Men has also entered a closed camp in preparation for the World Basketball Championship to be held in Latvia from June 30 to July 10. "The tournament will be tough, as Egypt will compete in Group D with China, Serbia and US," he added. Egypt's Under-18 Basketball Team stole the limelight when they won the 2010 African Men's Basketball Championship, beating Tunisia in the final last October in Rwanda. As for Group A, it features Brazil, Poland, Russia and Tunisia. Group B features Argentina, Australia, Latvia and Taiwan, while Group C consists of Canada, Croatia, S. Korea and Lithuania. From its inauguration in 1979 until 2007, the World Basketball Championship was held every four years. Since 2007, it has been held biannually. "The EBF is doing everything to support the national teams, offering them all the facilities they need," Morsi said. Egypt's best showing in the World Basketball Championship was in 1950, when they came fifth; in 1994, the Pharaohs came in 14th place. As for the local championships, El-Gezira club won the Egyptian Basketball Premier League, finishing the season undefeated. In this year's Afro-Basket Championship, Egypt and South Africa were given wild cards to join the competition. "The tournament will take place in Madagascar on August 17-28, with 16 teams battling it out," Morsi said. The teams are Madagascar, Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Cameroon, Morocco, Central Africa, Chad, Rwanda and Mozambique. The first African Basketball Championship was held here in 1962 and Egypt grabbed the title. It grabbed gold again in 1970, 1975 and 1983. The Egypt Women's U-19 Team, meanwhile, will participate for the first time in the World Basketball Cup, to be hosted by Chile on July (21-31). Morsi added that the EBF wanted to raise the standard of basketball in Egypt, in order to revive its golden epoch and achieve worldwide success. Basketballers need strong arms and shoulders in order to send the ball flying, while strong legs are the powerhouse that fuels a player. Worldwide, there are millions of players, while hundreds of millions of people follow basketball as a spectator sport, especially the games of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA is North America's professional men's basketball league, composed of 30 teams: 29 in the United States and one in Canada. Egypt's national basketball team took part in the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles and in 1988 in Seoul, coming the 12th on both occasions while, at the Mediterranean Games held in Almeria, Spain in 2005, Egypt grabbed fifth place.
