35 national federations, including BBF, will participate in the Skills Challenges 2020 regional Qualifiers to get a chance to pass to the final part of the Global Challenge. The tournament replaced the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cups that were cancelled due to COVID-19. 16 boys (8 teams – Italy, Egypt, Spain, Australia, Turkey, Bulgaria, China, Mali – have already received a "wild card", another 8 – will be determined after the regional selections in Africa, America, Asia and Europe) and 16 girls teams (9 teams – Lithuania, Mali, Spain, Australia, Egypt, Italy, Puerto Rico, Romania, China – have already received a "wild card", the other 7 will be determined during the regional selections).
The group stage of the European regional selection will take place within two days (13-14 August), 10 girls and boys teams from the Old World will compete there.
European Qualifiers (men):
Group A: Poland, Israel, Belarus, Slovakia, Ireland.
Group B: Latvia, Georgia, Romania, Portugal, Gibraltar.
European Qualifiers (women):
Group A: Belarus, Poland, Israel, Ireland, Gibraltar.
Group B: Latvia, Slovakia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Georgia.
According to the competition system, each team will meet in absentia with opponents within their group. The competition will be recorded on video and then sent to FIBA to determine the accuracy and speed of each team. Then, on August 16, four best teams of the group stage will compete for the final part of the project "Global Challenge"; only two strongest teams (girls and boys) from Europe will be selected.
Belarusian Basketball Federation held a training camp for Skills Challenge candidates, the following players were there: Tserabei Anhelina, Damianiuk Palina, Novik Katsiaryna, Bernatskaya Yauheniya, Tsitavets Alena, Sedach Karalina, Sporyk Natallia, Shyshliuk Yelizaveta, Ruksha Anastasiya, Yakubovich Aliaksandra, Burava Darya, Pishchaka Lizaveta, Milasheuski Illia, Shcherbakov Roman, Yudkin Aliaksei, Nadzeyeu Mikita, Shestukov Egor, Terehov Ivan, Bachkar Aliaksei, Yarmolchyk Yahor, Kachalouski Viktar.
The final rosters of women and men team of five will be determined directly on the day of the competition (13 and 14 August).
The women's team was training under the leadership of Mikalai Buzliakou, the men's team – under the leadership of Aliaksei Sukhavetski. The head coaches of the National Teams – Nataliya Trafimava and Rostislav Vergun – proposed these coaches during the BBF Executive Committee.
- Details