Less than six days remain until the start of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival and the Aussie men’s and women’s basketball teams have descended on Canberra for their final tune-up.

The best of Australia’s basketball playing youth will be in camp at the AIS until Tuesday getting the jump on their Kiwi rivals, who arrive Saturday, as well as China and Japan who arrive Monday and Tuesday.

The youth multi-sport event, in its fifth incarnation and featuring 17 sports, is a significant part of developing future Olympians and a legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The men’s and women’s basketball competition will be held at the Sydney Uni Sports & Aquatic Centre from January 14-17, with Paul Goriss and Nicole Ireland coaching the men’s and women’s teams respectively.

“This group represented Australia in Guam at the Oceania Youth Tournament in December last year and has had some international experience which will probably help them in this tournament,” Basketball Australia’s GM of National Teams and Competitions Lorraine Landon said.

“It is a bit of an unknown just how strong the Chinese teams will be and the same goes for the Japanese teams but we are looking for both of our Australian teams to qualify for the gold medal matches.

“More than anything we’re pleased to have a quality international competition at this age group happening in Australia.”

The Aussie women, who are mostly aged 16, will contest the first game of the event against New Zealand at 8:00am AET on Wednesday while the Australian men will face the same opponent at 2:00pm AET on the same day.

The Opening Ceremony for the event will be held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night.

After Australia’s games against China on Thursday (men at 5pm; women at 7pm) and Japan on Friday (women at 5pm; men at 7pm) the men’s and women’s Gold and Bronze Medal games will be played on Saturday.

Click here for a full schedule


2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival Basketball Teams

Men:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name	STATE
Jackson Aldridge	NSW
Igor Hadziomerovic	VIC
Jackson Hussey	WA
Corban Wroe	QLD
Anthony Drmic	VIC
Hugh Greenwood	TAS
Sam Rowley	NSW
Stephen Rowe	ACT
Sam Gilmore	VIC
John Marriott	SA
Mitchell McCarron	QLD
Daniel Trist	NSW

 

 

 

Paul Goriss - Head Coach
Jaimie O’Loughlin and Alan McAughtry – Assistant Coaches
David Rehn – Team manager
Eirak Ulvestad – Physiotherapist

 

 

Women:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAME		STATE
Jillian Haughton		QLD
Kerryn Harrington		VIC
Nicole Seekamp		SA
Madeleine Garrick		VIC
Rebecca Cole		VIC
Ashleigh Karaitiana		NSW
Rebecca Allen		VIC
Gretel Tippett		QLD
Allyson Brown		NSW
Lauren Nicholson		NSW
Nadeen Payne		QLD
Cassandra Mangos		NSW

Nicole Ireland - Head Coach
Michael Turton and Ben Cukier – Assistant Coaches
Michele Menso – Team manager
Merryn Aldridge - Physiotherapist