USA Womens National Basketball Training Camps Begin

The USA Women's National Basketball Team is starting their campaign for the FIBA 2010 World Championships in the Czech Republic in Washington last week. Now they will be embarking on a trip to Russia to participate in the Ekaterinburg International Invitational. Twelve players have been announced to play and travel with the team on October 9-11th 2009. Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Candace Parker, Swin Cash, Tina Charles, Shameka Christon, Candice Dupree, Lindsey Harding, Asjha Jones, Crystal Langhorne, Angel McCoughtry, Renee Montgomery and Candice Wiggins.
Three Euroleague teams will be participating in the tournament; UMMC Ekaterinburg, USK Praha and MKB Euroleasing Sopron.


All of the players that have been named to the USA National Team or invited to the training camps are the following players.

Two-time Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever) and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury); as well as '08 gold medalists Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks) and Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury) were named to the 2009-12 USA Basketball Women's National Team on Aug. 17.

Named to the USA training camp roster on Sept. 22 were: Jayne Appel (Stanford / Pleasant Hill, Calif.); Alana Beard (Washington Mystics); Swin Cash (Seattle Storm); Tina Charles (Connecticut / Jamaica, N.Y.); Shameka Christon (New York Liberty); Candice Dupree (Chicago Sky); Lindsey Harding (Washington Mystics); Ebony Hoffman (Indiana Fever); Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun); Crystal Langhorne (Washington Mystics); Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream); Maya Moore (Connecticut / Lawrenceville, Ga.); Lindsay Whalen (Connecticut Sun); and Candice Wiggins (Minnesota Lynx).

Appel, Augustus, Beard, Lawson and Whalen are injured, however, they are expected to attend the training camp. Catchings, Hoffman, Pondexter and Taurasi are competing in the WNBA Finals and will not attend training camp.