By Staff Reporter

Ireland has been selected to host the Under-18 Women’s European Basketball Championships in 2017.

The announcement by the sport’s world governing body Fiba has been met with great excitement by the Irish basketball community, as it is the first time Ireland has hosted an underage European Championship event.

The tournament, which will run from 4-13 August, will include up to 24 countries and more than 50 games of basketball across two venues, the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght and the new National Indoor Arena at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, west Dublin, which is due to open in early 2017.

Speaking about the news, U18 women’s head coach team Tommy O’Mahony said: “This is an opportunity that should be relished by everyone in the Irish basketball community.

“European Championships don’t come to your country every year so while it’s here, we should all take advantage of it and take pride in the fact that it’s here.”

He added: “This is yet another stepping stone to even more brilliant opportunities for basketball in Ireland. It’s a long time since Ireland hosted such a big tournament and hopefully, everyone will get behind the girls next year.”
Basketball Ireland secretary general Bernard O’Byrne described the announcement as “a great step forward for Irish basketball”. 

“We will need a lot of volunteers to help us to run this in an efficient manner and we hope that the entire basketball community will get behind the tournament and support it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sport Ireland chief executive John Treacy said he was “delighted” that one of the host venues is the new arena at the National Sports Campus. 

“The National Indoor Arena will provide state of the art facilities both to athletes and spectators, and I look forward to welcoming everyone to the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus in August 2017.”