Photo credit: @basketball_ireland
Ireland's women’s basketball team made their FIBA 3x3 Women’s World Series campaign debut this past Friday, 14 June, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This marks a significant milestone for Irish basketball as they compete in a global tour event for the first time.
The FIBA Women's 3x3 is a global tournament series comprising 20 stops around the world between April and August. The exact number of events Ireland will participate in is yet to be determined. Teams accumulate points based on their performance at each stop, with the top-ranked teams qualifying for the finals in September. Canada, the defending champions, along with the United States, Spain, Thailand, Puerto Rico, and Mongolia, are among the formidable opponents in the competition.
View this post on InstagramAdvertisement
Featuring five of the eight nations that will compete at the Olympics later this year, including China, Germany, Canada, France, and Azerbaijan, Ireland will compete against some of the best basketball nations. Ireland was drawn in Pool B, where they faced the second-seeded French team and the invitational side Clermont-Ferrand, which includes Eve Wembanyama, sister of San Antonio Spurs sensation Victor Wembanyama.
The Irish squad included four players who reached the quarter-final stage of the FIBA 3x3 Europe Cup qualifiers in Kosovo: Claire Melia, Enya Maguire, Áine O’Connor, and Grainne Dwyer. Katie Williamson and Lynn Tunnah, who were part of the group that won a 3x3 invitational tournament in Scotland recently, are also in contention.
Speaking on the team's debut at the prestigious tournament, head coach Colin O’Reilly said: “Our end goal as a team is to make it to an Olympics. With that, it’s massively important that we entered the FIBA 3x3 Women's World Series to allow us to play against the best teams in the world on a regular basis. Playing at the best level allows us to identify areas of improvement around our structures that will help the players firstly compete, and then win at this level."
Ireland’s first match was against France on Friday, followed by a game against Clermont-Ferrand. Ireland game up short in both games, missing out on advancing to the quarter-finals (the top two teams in the three-team group advance). The team gave a terrific performance, and currently stand 10th in the tournament rankings.
Ireland’s participation in the FIBA 3x3 Women’s World Series marks a new chapter for the sport in the country, with high hopes and aspirations for future Olympic participation. The journey begins with the excitement and challenges of facing some of the world’s best teams, setting the stage for Ireland to make a significant impact on the global basketball stage.
The scheduled events for the series include:
Clermont-Ferrand (France) – June 14-15
Orleans (France) – June 20-21
Chengdu (China) – June 21-22
Poitiers (France) – June 25-26
Quebec (Canada) – June 29-30
Wuhan (China) – June 29-30
Fribourg (Switzerland) – July 4-5
Edmonton (Canada) – July 5-6
Bordeaux (France) – July 9-10
Baoding (China) – July 12-13
Pristina (Kosovo) – July 18-19
Guba (Azerbaijan) – July 20-21
Saskatoon (Canada) – August 17-18
Baku (Azerbaijan) – August 17-18
Debrecen (Hungary) – August 24-25
All games can be viewed live on the FIBA 3x3 YouTube channel.
