Ireland has won the right to host the Under 18 Women’s European Basketball Championships in 2017. The announcement was made by FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, following a meeting in Istanbul.
The Championships will take place from August 4th to 13th, 2017. They will include 24 countries and more than 50 games of basketball across two venues.
The National Basketball Arena in Tallaght will be one venue and the new Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena at the National Sports Campus will be the second.
Read more about the development of the National Indoor Arena
This will be one of the first major tournaments to be held at the new arena, which is due to open in early 2017.
The tournament will overlap with the hosting of the Women’s Rugby World Cup which will take place at UCD and Belfast from August 9th to the 26th. It means that Ireland will have genuine claim to being at the centre of the Women’s sporting world next summer, aside altogether from the extensive domestic activity taking place.
Read an exclusive interview with Garrett Tubridy, Director of the Women’s Rugby World Cup
This is the first time Ireland has hosted an underage European Championships final tournament in basketball. The last major event that came close was a qualifying round in 2002 with 10 countries in attendance.
“This is very exciting news for Basketball Ireland,” said Basketball Ireland Secretary General Bernard O’Byrne.
“It is the next logical step for us after hosting Congress and having our International teams back in place. It is following our Strategic Plan 2015-2025 and is a great step forward for Irish basketball.”
“We will need a lot of volunteers to help us to run this in an efficient manner and we hope that the entire basketball community will get behind the tournament and support it.”
“This is an opportunity that should be relished by everyone in the Irish basketball community,” said Head Coach of the Irish Under 18 Women’s team Tommy O’Mahony.
“European Championships don’t come to your country every year so while it’s here, we should all take advantage of it and take pride in the fact that it’s here.
“Anytime we travel to Europeans, the best support over there is always for the Irish team so I can only imagine what the support is going to be like now in our own country.”
“It is a fantastic opportunity for Irish people to see international basketball during the summer and it’s a big opportunity for Basketball Ireland and for the Under 18 girls to show off their skills as the home nation on a massive stage.”
“This is yet another stepping stone to even more brilliant opportunities for basketball in Ireland. It’s a long time since Ireland hosted such a big tournament and hopefully, everyone will get behind the girls next year.”
“It is a great honour for Basketball Ireland to host this European Championships,” added President of Basketball Ireland, Theresa Walsh. “It has been quite some time since we hosted such a prestigious event here and all of us in the basketball community look forward to welcoming the 24 countries that will participate in the competition.”
“I know a lot of hard work went into the bidding process,” said John Treacy, Chief Executive of Sport Ireland.
“I am happy that Sport Ireland was able to support this bid and delighted that one of the venues will be the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena, which will provide state of the art facilities both to athletes and spectators.”
Reserve your place for Teaming Up for Women’s Sport on November 30th
