Coach has eyes on medal for Ireland

IRELAND may have lost their first two basketball games in their respective groups at the ESB Arena yesterday, but head coach Anne Marie Whelan is confident they can come away with medals.

In the men’s competition, the Ireland 3 team went under by a mere four points to tournament favourites, Kuwait, (35-39) while the Ireland 4 team also lost by a similar margin to France (22-26).

“We are still hopeful we can come away with a medal but, if not, it is the participation at the end of the day and the enjoyment of it that is really important,” said Whelan. “At the moment, Kazakhstan and Kuwait appear to be the favourites. They are a tough bunch, but I have every confidence in my athletes. They are going to go out and enjoy themselves and really put their hearts and souls into it and do themselves and their country proud.”

It has been a wonderful effort to get this far. For the past several months Anne Marie Whelan has been preparing her athletes, bringing them to the big events and getting them ready for the biggest assignment of their careers. Team selection has differed from other sports: “In basketball I kept the athletes who came up as a group together. You have area games, regional games, national games and also your world games, so the teams who started off as area games teams I just kept together from day one.

“In other sports they have not done that. They have selected athletes from around the country to compete together as one team, but I just felt that they worked so well together, they all knew each other and, as they were all from the one club, accessibility was an awful lot easier. They could train together all the time and they did not have to keep travelling up and down to Dublin.

“One of the female teams is from Waterford (six from Waterford City and four from Dungarvan) and the other ladies side is Moore Abbey from Monasterevin and with Leinster and Tipperary providing the male teams.”