Reaction to the 2019 FIBA Under-19 Women's World Cup Draw
Days after the Canadian men's senior team learned their fate at the upcoming World Cup in China, it was now the turn of the Under-19 Women's to watch as the groups for their tournament this summer were set.
With 2017 champions Russia failing to qualify for this edition of the tournament, the throne will already by vacant when the sixteen teams all begin their campaigns when the tournament gets underway later this year in Thailand.
Canada, who qualified after finishing second in the Americas tournament in Mexico, will join the hosts in Group A, along with Latvia and Mozambique, who will be making their Under-19 World Cup debut.
Far and away the highest ranked of the four teams in the group, and playing against teams with less experience of this level of international competition, Canada have seemingly favoured well from the draw - especially compared to the other groups.
China and Mali, champions of their respective continents, will face off in Group B as well as Belgium, who continue to try and establish themselves as one of the top teams in Europe, and basketball mainstays Argentina.
Containing dominant basketball forces Australia and the USA, as well as the emerging force of Hungary and the dependable and unpredictable South Korea, Group C seems to be the most difficult of the four.
European champions Germany will be looking to build on their success in Group D, where they will be joined by fellow World Championship debutants Colombia. Both will face stiff opposition, though, in Spain and Japan.
In the 2017 tournament Canada finished third overall with an impressive tournament performance where they dropped only one game to eventual champions Russia. They will be hoping they can go one step further this time around.
The tournament itself will tip off on July 20th in the Thai capital. Each team will play all their group opponents, after which all sixteen will then all enter into a knockout round based on their records at the end of the group stage. The winners will be crowned on July 28th.
More information can be found on the tournament's official website.
