Sports

Canada's women to play Olympic silver medallists in basketball World Cup qualifier

Canada's women's basketball team on Tuesday was drawn into a group including Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Japan, plus eighth-ranked Belarus and No. 27 Bosnia and Herzegovina for a Feb. 10-13 World Cup qualifying tourney in Osaka, Japan.

Japan, 8th-ranked Belarus headline group for Feb. 10-13 tourney in Osaka

Bridget Carleton and her Canadian teammates will face reigning Olympic basketball champs Japan, among other squads, at a World Cup qualifier in February. Canada was eliminated in the preliminary round at the Summer Games this past summer in Tokyo.
Bridget Carleton and her Canadian teammates will face reigning Olympic basketball champs Japan, among other squads, at a World Cup qualifier in February. Canada was eliminated in the preliminary round at the Summer Games this past summer in Tokyo. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images/File)

Canada's women's basketball team will play its World Cup qualifying tournament February in Osaka, Japan.

Canada was drawn Tuesday into a group that includes Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Japan, plus eighth-ranked Belarus and No. 27 Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Feb. 10-13 tournament.

The top three teams in the group qualify for the tournament Sept. 22 to Oct. 1, 2022, in Sydney, Australia.

After going unbeaten in Olympic qualifying through March of 2020, the Canadians were eliminated in the preliminary round in last summer's Olympics.

Neither Belarus nor Bosnia and Herzegovina competed in Tokyo.

Canada is still without a head coach after Canada Basketball and longtime coach Lisa Thomaidis agreed to part ways after Tokyo.

A qualifying window in February means it's unlikely NCAA players will be available to play.

The field for the women's World Cup was reduced to 12 teams for Sydney, down from 16. The men's tournament has 32 teams.

WATCH | Bring It In Panel discusses likelihood of WNBA in Toronto:

Drake wants an WNBA team in Toronto, is it only a matter of time? | Bring It In

3 years ago
Duration 7:40
Last week Toronto-born recording artist Drake, posted on his Instagram story saying that he needed a WNBA team in Toronto. Host Morgan Campbell is joined by Meghan McPeak and Dave Zirin, to discuss the growth of basketball in Canada and why this might just be the perfect time for the WNBA to expand north of the border.

Add some “good” to your morning and evening.

Get up to speed on what's happening in sports. Delivered weekdays.

...

The next issue of The Buzzer will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in the Subscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.