FIBA U19 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - LATVIA 2011 Please wait while content is loading.

FIBA U19 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - LATVIA 2011

Official Name 2011 FIBA U19 World Champiosnhip Place Country: Latvia City: Liepaja, Valmiera and Riga Dates 30th June - 10th July 2011 System of competition View system of competition Participating teams Argentina Australia Brazil Canada China Chinese Taipei Croatia Egypt Korea Latvia Lithuania Poland Russia Serbia Tunisia USA View teams History View history

Meet the Stars of Tomorrow, Today! Raw. exciting. fast. These are just some of the adjectives that are used to describe the FIBA U19 World Championship by those who regularly attend the event and inevitably fall in love with it. Why? Because the play on offer is of the very top quality and yet independant from tactical rigidity, because the lockeroom is still free of oversized egoes and because the coverage and coloumn inches gain nothing from hyped up and exaggerated discourse, and because the attending basketball fans are fans and lovers of basketball first and foremost. But as much as anything else, it is because you get to see the stars of tomorrow - the very best young talent in the world - before they become superstars and before the hype allows for them to be distracted from what matters most; their game. The excitement felt by scouts, fans, coaches - even fellow players - in discovering the players who are on the brink of taking the world by storm, is always visible. The history of this Championship, which will be played for the 10th time this summer, is star-studded with some of the biggest names in basketball, including the likes of Andrew Bogut, Linas Kleiza, Andrei Kirilenko, Pau Gasol, Vince Carter, Wang Zhizhi, Dejan Bodiroga, Steve Nash, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc and Arvydas Sabonis. The potential and popularity of this event - first held in 1979 - made FIBA decide to move from a four-year cycle to staging the event every two years as of 2007. This will ensure that every generation of global basketball talent will have the chance to compete at the highest international level. The 2011 FIBA World U19 Championship for Men will gather teams from 16 countries and five FIBA continental zones, featuring the world's best young players born in 1992 or after. Europe will be represented by six teams – Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland. The Americas zone will be represented by four teams – USA, Brazil, Canada, Argentina. Asia will have three teams – China, Korea and Chinese Taipei - while Africa will be represented by two teams – Egypt and Tunisia. Australia, representing the Oceania zone, complete the lineup.

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