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Sport
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ADF
team hits the hoops
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The
ADF men’s basketball team and the Oceania team following
their game at the Australian Institute of Sport.
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By CMDR
Chris Siegmann
ADF basketballers had a unique opportunity over the Australia Day
weekend to participate in a carnival at the Australian Institute
of Sport (AIS) in Canberra.
ADF teams usually participate in a Canberra carnival over the Australia
Day weekend, but unfortunately due to the extreme heat and the fire
situation, that carnival was cancelled.
However, the Australia under-age teams, who traditionally have a
training camp at the AIS in the week preceding the Canberra carnival,
were looking for games to finish their week.
A tournament was quickly arranged and teams from the AIS, ACT Academy
of Sport, NSW Institute of Sport, and some local teams, including
the Canberra Gunners, (the local Australia Basketball Association
team) were brought together.
The tournament also included a team representing Oceania, made up
of players from Tahiti, New Caledonia, Fiji, PNG and the Solomon
Is, who had also come to Canberra to participate in the scheduled
carnival after participating in a training camp in Sydney the previous
week.
To have the ADF invited to participate was a great honour and recognition
that Defence basketball was considered to be able to compete at
such a high level was a reflection on the hard work put in by many
people over many years to promote and improve the sport in the ADF.
The ADF men’s team beat Australia U16s by more than 20 points,
Oceania by 20, just went down to the AIS by three and in the last
game went down against Australia U18s by 25.
The girls provided good competition for ACT U20s and Aust U16s and
18s, but unfortunately went down in all their games.
The basketball was of a very high standard and prospects for the
ADF teams at the Arafura Games in May look extremely promising if
the same standard of play can be maintained.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of the AD
Basketball Association and a gala ball to mark the occasion will
be held in Sydney in October. Past players, referees and managers
are invited to contact CMDR Chris Siegmann (chris.siegmann@defence.gov.au)
or Dean Hill (dean.hill@networksolutions.net.au),
for more.
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