THE Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) was host to the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U-16 Male Championships from July 3 to 9 as countries battled for not just gold, but a 2017 Centro Basket Championship spot.The Guyanese males have made history by qualifying for the Centro Basket Championship and tonight as the girls lace up, the question remains if they could also qualify for the tournament in 2017.
Both Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) president Nigel Hinds, as well as Youth Basketball Guyana director (YBG) Chris Bowman have stated that this tournament is a development tournament, with more focus placed on gaining exposure.
The female team have less pressure to succeed than the second-placed male finishers, due to their inexperience, as most of them started basketball within the last six months.
The mindset reflects the GABF’s focus to develop the juniors in order to build a contending senior team for the future.
It is anticpated that the tournament will continue its successful run and officials hope to see the same support the male team had.
Today’s games start in the preliminary round, with Antigua & Barbuda taking on Barbados at 14:00hrs and Suriname facing the Bahamas at 16:15hrs.
The opening ceremony starts at 18:30hrs and host Guyana will face British Virgin Islands at 19:15hrs. Under the theme ‘Defending till the end’, the hosts will look to win their first game at the International level.