Uruguay welcomes South American U17 Championship

Matias Nocedal

Today will be the start of South American U17 Championship scheduled from May 25-31 at Ciriaco Lopez Coliseum in Trinidad, Uruguay. The tournament qualifies three teams for the FIBA Americas U18 Championship to be played next year. Nine teams are ready to compete for those three places and the task for them so far will be the Semifinal stage.
In Group A the hosts will face Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay. Group B is integrated by Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.
In 2007 Argentina surprised Venezuela 61:55 in the final matchday of the U17 South American Championship for Men by winning the gold medal and repeating the honors they had achieved in the edition of Barquisimeto 2005. For Argentina Matias Nocedal (192-G-90, agency: Interperformances) nailed that time 13 points, while Fabian Ramirez added 12. Gregory Echenique (206-F-90) ended up with 22 points in defeat, whilst Josmar Acevedo (196-F-90) had 8 points. Meanwhile, Uruguay also took the opportunity and defeated Brazil in the third place game, leaving them out of the upcoming Americas Cup of 2008 and, therefore, out of the race for a spot in the U19 World Cup of 2009.
May 25th will have two clashes between Brazil and Colombia as well as Venezuela and Chile. Tomorrow Ciriaco Lopez Coliseum in Trinidad will have 4 games as well as on May 27th and 29th. On May 28th there are two games scheduled, while the Semifinals will begin on May 30th.