TORONTO — Indiana Fever stars Natalie Achonwa and Kayla Alexander, both from Ontario, are among 15 athletes invited by Canada Basketball to participate in national team training camp ahead of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018.
Achonwa, coming off her best WNBA season in 2018, is a two-time Olympian with Team Canada.
Head Coach Lisa Thomaidis (University of Saskatchewan) will lead Canada and be joined by assistants Steve Baur (Canada Basketball) and Carly Clarke (Ryerson University).
“This is an exciting time for our women’s national team,” said Lisa Thomaidis, Head Coach, Senior Women’s National Team. “We are looking forward to starting training camp with the deepest talent pool we’ve had in recent memory.”
“With many of our athletes playing in the best leagues in the world, we are excited to get everyone together to prepare to represent Canada with pride and passion at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup,” Thomaidis said.
Currently ranked a program-high 5th in the FIBA World Ranking Presented by NIKE, Canada qualified for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 last summer after winning their second consecutive FIBA Women’s AmeriCup title.
The FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup is the biggest international women’s basketball competition with 18th edition of the event taking place in Spain from September 22-30, 2018 in San Cristobal de la Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Following training camp, 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).
“We have a great exhibition schedule lined up leading into the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup and look forward to the team coming together and competing against the best teams in the world,” said Denise Dignard, Director Women’s High Performance.
Canada is in Group A for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 and will face Greece (Sept. 22), Korea (Sept. 23) and France (Sept. 25) in the Group Phase. Click here for the competition schedule.