Opals name new team for Chinese tour

The Australian women’s basketball team, the Opals have moved another step closer to a World Championship gold medal, announcing a 12-woman team to tour China at the end of June.

After a four-day camp in Geelong, Victoria over the long weekend, Opals coach Jan Stirling named a team to play China, Russia and the Czech Republic throughout the 11-day tour.

All four teams will be competing in the FIBA World Championship for Women in Brazil this September, and the matches will give the Opals a taste of what to expect if they want to win their first World Championship crown.

The team to tour China includes seven athletes from the Commonwealth Game gold medal winning side.

With seven World Championship hopefuls currently playing in the WNBA and unavailable for the tour, 251-game veteran Jenny Whittle (32) will steady the ship for the team which boasts only one other Olympian in Alicia Poto (28).

Poto has been away from the Opals team for the past 10 months after injuring her knee in the World Championship qualification tournament last August. Poto made her Olympic debut in Athens where she won a silver medal with the team.

Stirling has given some youngsters a chance to prove themselves with the team throughout this tour. 19-year-old Renae Camino is expected make a big impact on the team in her debut matches. Training to make her debut in 2005, her first chance was thwarted by a devastating knee injury the day before her first match in New Zealand.

The 2005 Rookie of the Year missed the recent WNBL season due the injury and is looking forward to her comeback to the court. Her former AIS and Australian U19 World Championship teammate, Kathleen Macleod will join her in the team.

The Opals fly to China on June 27 and play a four nations tournament in Baoshan, Shanghai. They take on China on June 30, Russia on July 1 and the Czech Republic on July 2.

They then move onto Luoyang and will play another three matches against the teams on July 4, 5 and 6.

147-game veteran Kristi Harrower (30) was not named in the team after attending the camp in Geelong. Harrower will use the coming month to rest her body after a gruelling season playing in Europe.

The squad will regroup for a camp in Australia in late July and will leave for an extended tour in late August in the lead up to the World Championship tip off against Lithuania on September 12. The World Championship team will be named in late July.

Opals team for China:

Jacinta Hamilton (Dandenong), Hollie Grima (Bulleen Melbourne), Katrina Hibbert (Bulleen Melbourne), Alicia Poto (Sydney Uni), Renae Camino (Townsville), Deanna Smith (Perth), Kathleen Macleod (Dandenong), Emily McInerny (Dandenong), Emma Randall (Dandenong), Jennifer Screen (Adelaide), Carly Wilson (Dandenong), Jenny Whittle (Canberra).