The women’s basketball players will play for the WC in Mexico, they have Korea, Mali and Venezuela in their group

Coach Romana Ptáčková’s wards will appear in Group A in Mexico. In Group B, the home team, Montenegro, New Zealand and Mozambique will play. The top two teams advance to the semi-finals. The winner of the tournament will advance to the 24 qualifiers for the World Championship, which will be hosted by Berlin in 2026. Twenty-two teams will qualify based on their results at the continental championships next year, when the Euro will be co-hosted by the Czech Republic in Brno. 16 teams will be represented at the World Championship in two years.

“I used to say to myself that I don’t want Mali from Africa, Korea from Asia and Brazil from America. It probably shouldn’t be done, because two-thirds of it didn’t work,” said Ptáčková on the website of the Czech Basketball Federation. “I think Mali and Korea are the strongest of the selection in their respective continents. Basketball in Mali has gone up a lot in recent years. Their young players quite often go to universities in Spain and the USA,” said the Czech coach.

She met Mali basketball players in previous years at the Under-19 World Cup. “It’s not just about athleticism, but they’ve improved a lot in terms of technique as well. Korea plays typical Asian basketball in a completely atypical spacing, which does not suit a lot of teams. Tremendous mobility and technical prowess of the players and a great shooter from long distance. It is very similar to Japanese basketball,” said Ptáčková. He has no experience with Venezuela. “Now comes the work of assistant Martin Bašta to get scouting,” she stated.

He sees Černá Hora as the favorite of the tournament. “It is very difficult to say in advance what it will look like. I don’t know the current state of basketball in Mexico and Mozambique. At first glance, I would say that Černá Hora has the best lot and is the favorite, but everything can be different,” added Ptáčková.

“We also have to take into account the altitude at which the game will be played. When we go there, we want to go in the best possible formation and we want to succeed. On the other hand, for our young team, it is a huge experience for next year and EuroBasket, because it would be very difficult for us to negotiate with such opponents and get them to one place,” said the coach.

The second pre-qualification tournament will be hosted in August by the Rwandan metropolis of Kigali, where Hungary and Great Britain were drawn from the European teams.