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The Netherlands national coaches Cees van Rootselaar and Gertjan van der Linden have announced the selections of the national teams that will participate in the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships that will be held in Hamburg, Germany, from 16 to 28 August next summer. Both national coaches have announced eleven of the twelve names.

Orange Lions


In the men, Cees van Rootselaar has selected the following eleven players for the World Championship: Frank de Jong, Robin Poggenwisch, Mendel op den Orth, Walter Groen, Anton de Rooij, Joost Morsinkhof, Mattijs Bellers, Gijs Even, Quinten Zantinge, Arie Twigt and Mustafa Korkmaz.

Anil Cegil, Patrick de Boer and Sebastiao Nijman are eligible for the twelfth and last place.

Van Rootselaar, said: "I am very happy with the entire selection so far. It is never nice to have to cut back your selection to fourteen men, but I did not want the group to be too big towards the World Championships, also the eleven players who have now been selected have grown and improved in the past year, eight out of eleven have played in strong competitions abroad, these are the guys who have to perform at the World Championships, plus the twelfth player who still has to be chosen. "


The national coach of the men is pleased with the preparation programme of his Lions and continued:

"We start on June 8 with a training camp against Israel, then we play two matches in Germany and then fly to Canada. In Toronto we hold a training camp with practise matches exclusively against Canada. Immediately after our return to the Netherlands, we participate in a tournament in England with five other countries, then we train at the Sport- en Evenementencentrum Merwestein in Nieuwegein, where the practice camp will conclude with a four countries tournament from 1 to 5 August."


Orange Angels


Gertjan van der Linden, the national coach for the women, has all his focus on the end of August. The Netherlands women’s wheelchair basketball players travel to the World Championships in Germany as the reigning European champion and therefore have something to prove.

Like his colleague in the men’s team, Van der Linden has announced his first eleven athletes. There is also one place left for the Angels.

Van der Linden: "After our training in America in late June, followed by a tournament in England, I will decide the twelfth player."


The eleven selected players are: Jitske Visser, Saskia Pronk, Ilse Arts, Amy Kaijen, Lindsay Frelink, Cher Korver, Carina de Rooij, Julia van der Sprong, Mariska Beijer, Xena Wimmenhoeve and Bo Kramer.

There is one new face in view of the European Championship selection: Julia van der Sprong. The centre of Grasshoppers, who made the switch to the CTO at Papendal this year, makes her debut at the World Championships level. Other World Championship debutants in the selection are Arts, Frelink, Kaijen, and Wimmenhoeve.

At the previous World Championships in 2014, the Orange Angels finished third after losing in the semi-final against world champions Canada and then victory over the USA women in the battle for the bronze.



Wording courtesy of Nederlandse Basketball Bond