Basketball: New star on the horizon
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Emerging basketball talent Jeena P.S. has been selected to represent India in the first ever FIBA invitational 3x3 Youth World Basketball Championships in Rimini, Italy, commencing from September 9.
The Kannur girl, who was instrumental in Kerala clinching the 62nd National junior championship earlier this year, is the only player from the State to be chosen for the event.
In June this year, Jeena was one of the three Kerala-based players to have donned the Indian colours in the FIBA Asia championship, held in Omura and Nagasaki — others being Soniya Joy and Lizy Mathew.
A student of the VK Krishnamenon College, Kannur, Jeena is expected to take over the mantle of the State’s best player from the immensely-talented Geethu Anna Jose.
There will be 36 teams in the boys category and 24 in the girls event at the World Championships.
The 3x3 variant is the formalised version of three-on-three, half-court basketball and the format’s first major international test was at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.
The fast-paced game is played on one-half of the FIBA regulation court and each team will have four players, of whom three will be on the court at any given time.
The Indian U-18 girls team will be trained by Pete Gaudet, US-based coach who is also the head coach of senior women’s national team. The U-18 boys team is coached by Kulwinder Singh Gill from Madhya Pradesh. A few other emerging players who will hit the dock are Aishwarya Natarajan (Tamil Nadu), Amrutha Bhuskute (Maharashtra) and Shireen Limaye (Maharashtra).
India will compete against Angola, Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, Guam, Italy, Japan, Netherland, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the US, and Venezuela.
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