TORONTO — Canada Basketball has announced its roster for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018, including current Fever players Natalie Achonwa and Kayla Alexander.
Click here for the Senior Women’s National Team FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 roster.
“After a very competitive training camp, we have a roster that we’re really excited about,” said Lisa Thomaidis, Head Coach, Senior Women’s National Team. “We’re looking forward to this next stage of training and competition, where we’ll be able to measure ourselves against some of the best teams in the world prior to competing at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.”
Currently ranked a program-high 5th in the FIBA World Ranking Presented by NIKE, Canada qualified for their fourth consecutive FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup after winning their second consecutive FIBA Women’s AmeriCup title last summer.
This will be Canada’s ninth appearance at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup (known from 1953 to 2014 as the FIBA World Championship for Women). Canada’s fifth place finish at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women was the highest since a pair of third place finishes in 1979 (Seoul, Korea) and 1986 (Moscow, Soviet Union).
Achonwa and Alexander React —
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) September 5, 2018
Truly grateful and thankful for the opportunity to represent team Canada this summer. A goal I have been chasing after for quite some time, which makes this moment extra special to me. 😭🙏🇨🇦 #Thankful https://t.co/en8Hynmhrl
— Kayla Alexander (@kjalexan40) September 6, 2018
Canada is in Group A for the 18th edition of FIBA’s flagship women’s eventand will face Greece (Sept. 22), Korea (Sept. 23) and France (Sept. 25) in the Group Phase. Click here for the competition schedule.
“Training camp was a great chance to see the athletes compete and observe the progress they have each made over the past year,” said Denise Dignard, Director Women’s High Performance. “Each one of them is an incredible ambassador of our Canadian team and committed to the goal of getting Canada to the podium.”
“The upcoming opportunity to compete at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup and against other top nations is invaluable towards our team’s preparation for Tokyo 2020,” Dignard said.
The FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup is the biggest international women’s basketball competition and brings together the 16 best teams from across FIBA’s four regions – Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.
This year’s event will take place in Spain from September 22-30, 2018 in San Cristóbal de la Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Prior to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, Canada will travel to Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut for a two-game exhibition series against Japan (Sept. 7) and USA (Sept. 8). Before arriving in Tenerife, Canada will face France, USA and Senegal in a four-team tournament in Antibes, France (Sept. 15-17).