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Message: [QUOTE="From Canada, post: 5309711, member: 12092"] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-u19-womens-basketball-world-cup-2025[/URL] The U19 Women's World Cup kicks off on Saturday July 12, it's a good opportunity to see Kayleigh Heckel and many of tomorrow's future stars play. The tournament is FIBA's most competitive age-group event. Unfortunately, this year will be a little disappointing in terms of the presence of the best athletes eligible to take part. Several countries have announced their final line-ups. Let's go with the top 5 positions in the FIBA girls' world ranking (attachment). Starting with the [B]USA (#1),[/B] we already know that Sarah Strong, Joyce Edwards (1st U19 World Cup 2023 all-star team) and Kennedy Smith will be absent. I wouldn't want to overlook the absence of McKenna Woliczko either; she was selected last year on the U17 World Cup 1st All-Star Team, finished first for the USA in rebounding and efficiency statistics. Absent for [B]Spain (#2)[/B] will be Iyana Martin (MVP U19 World Cup 2023), Awa Fam (2nd U19 World Cup All-Star 2023) and Sara Okeke (1st U17 World Cup All-Star 2024). It's worth mentioning that Okeke is currently taking part in the European U18 Championship, as Europe has a U16 and U18 championship every year. For [B]Canada (#3[/B]), the absentees will be Savannah Swords (2nd U17 2024 World Cup all-star team), Deniya Prawl, who was Canada's top player for rebounds and assists at the U17 2023 World Cup, and Taliyah Henderson, ESPN HoopGurlz's #27 prospect in the 2025 class, who was not present at the selections and will be playing for North Carolina next season. But there's good news for Canada: Syla Swords will be present. For the Swords family, we'd probably hoped that the two sisters would be on the same Canadian team for the first time. The youngest sister is still recovering from an injury sustained last December, so I think caution has been the order of the day as far as she's concerned. Two new players will be making their official debuts: Avery Howell, who represented Canada at the Nike Hoop Summit 2024 and played two exhibition games with the Senior team, will be part of the squad. Milla Holloway, starting PG for Michigan, will wear the Canadian uniform for the first time. For [B]France (#4[/B]), I've only noticed one absence: Justine Loubens, who had a good tournament at last year's U17 World Cup, France has chosen to play her at the U18 European Championship, which ends on July 13. Finally, for [B]Australia (#5[/B]), their team will have to cope with the absence of Saffron Shiels and Lara Somfai, who took part in the last Nike Hoop Summit and were selected on the first U18 Asia Cup 2024 team. As the official line-ups have just been posted on the official FIBA website, the absence of [B]China's Zhang Ziyu 7'3[/B], who was chosen MVP at last year's Asia Cup U18 with 35 PPG and 12.8 RPG..., should be noted. The competition website is attached. Translated with DeepL.com (free version) [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.fiba.basketball/en/ranking/girls[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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