The Australian Opals’ quest to climb the world rankings will proceed in June and July when Sydney hosts the 2023 FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup.
Recent off a bronze medal finally yr’s World Cup in Sydney, the Opals return to the Harbour Metropolis to tackle Asia’s finest ladies’s basketballers.
The match will see the eight main nations from Asia and Oceania compete for the title of regional champion on the Sydney Olympic Park Sports activities Centre from June 26 to July 2.
The Opals, who’re at present ranked second in Asia behind China and forward of Japan, took residence the bronze medal in 2021 when the occasion was final performed in Jordan.
This yr’s Asia Cup will embody a possible eye-watering rematch between world No. 2 and world No. 3, China and Australia.
Opals captain Tess Madgen expects the Asia Cup to be one other cutthroat battle between the area’s best feminine basketballers.
“The competitors will likely be fierce with China and Japan within the combine so we should carry our A-game,” mentioned Madgen, who confirmed she’ll be match for the Asia Cup regardless of struggling a season-ending knee damage enjoying for the Melbourne Boomers within the WNBL.
“The followers are in for some intense, bodily basketball and I can’t wait to step out on the courtroom and symbolize the inexperienced and gold once more.”
It is going to be the second consecutive yr Sydney welcomes worldwide groups and followers to its shores, after efficiently internet hosting the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s Basketball World Cup in September final yr – which noticed report crowds help the Opals.
Madgen believes the Australians can capitalise on the house courtroom benefit, identical to they did on the World Cup to safe bronze.
“The World Cup final yr in Sydney was unbelievable and it’s nice to be again right here once more immediately asserting that the Asia Cup will likely be right here in June,” she mentioned.
“Enjoying in entrance of sold-out residence crowds was undoubtedly a bonus and we will likely be trying to make use of that once more on the Asia Cup.”
Basketball Australia CEO, Matt Scriven says having the chance to host one other world class even is a significant coup for Australia and NSW.
“This would be the first time Australia has hosted the FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup and we’re extremely honoured that the most effective basketballers from throughout our area will make their strategy to Sydney to compete on our residence soil,” Scriven mentioned.
“Following the success of final yr’s FIBA Ladies‘s Basketball World Cup, which noticed us obtain report crowds in Sydney, we all know ladies’s basketball has a extremely engaged viewers in NSW and participation retains rising.
“With our ladies’s nationwide group at present ranked second in Asia, this will likely be a improbable competitors and we hope all sports activities followers from round Australia will journey to Sydney to cheer on the inexperienced and gold and assist create an enduring legacy for our sport.”
Minister for Sport Alister Henskens mentioned the choice to host the match in Sydney is a direct results of the NSW Liberal and Nationals Authorities’s monitor report of efficiently internet hosting worldwide sporting competitions together with the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s Basketball World Cup.
“Document crowds on the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s Basketball World Cup and a deep ardour for the game has seen Sydney once more chosen to host one other main world sporting match,” Mr Henskens mentioned.
“The 2023 FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup will see the area’s main basketball nations battle it out for Gold at Sydney Olympic Park and provides Sydney’s passionate basketball followers the prospect to once more get behind the Opals.
“NSW is Australia’s undisputed premier main occasions State, and with this match and the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup 2023 commencing in July, it’s shaping as much as be a bumper winter of girls’s sport.”
In regards to the FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup:
The FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup is the premier ladies’s nationwide group basketball competitors that brings collectively the most effective groups from the Asia/Oceania area. Happening each two years, 2023 will mark the thirtieth version of the FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup.
The inaugural FIBA Ladies’s Asia Cup befell in Seoul, Korea in 1965 with the hosts rising as the primary champions after beating rivals Japan within the Closing. To this point, Korea has gained 12 of the 29 editions, China eleven and present reigning champions, Japan, maintain six titles – together with the final 5 in a row.
Initially revealed as Asia Cup basketball 2023: Sydney to host match as Opals brace for robust competitors
