NAIROBI, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) women basketball team faces a tough test as it makes its debut showing at the FIBA Africa Women's Champions Cup, which will be held in Egypt.
The Africa premier basketball event for women's clubs will be held in Cairo on December 6-15. KPA are the Kenyan league champions, and will be up against reigning champions Ferroviario de Maputo of Mozambique, FAP (Cameroon), Inter Clube (Angola) and JKL (Tanzania).
FIBA Africa, the continental body overseeing basketball, said it will be setting a new benchmark to host the women's competition in Egypt for the first time ever.
"It is a historic moment for Egyptian women's basketball as it is the first-ever in the 34-year old history of the tournament that it will be hosted in the land of the Pharaohs," FIBA Africa said in a statement released on Saturday.
Egypt has hosted several international competitions including the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2017 in Cairo as well as FIBA AfroBasket editions right from the inaugural one back in 1962 through to 1992 and 2003 in Alexandria. Last year, Cairo hosted the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 African second-round qualifiers as well as several other tournaments.
Alongside the reigning champions Ferroviario de Maputo of Mozambique, who are automatically already qualified for the event, Egypt will be represented by two clubs - Al Ahly and Sporting Club.
The other nine teams include: Air Warrior (Nigeria), ASB Makomeno (DR Congo), City Hornets (Zimbabwe), Energie (Benin), FAP (Cameroon), Inter Clube (Angola), JKL (Tanzania) and Mountain of Fire Ministry (Nigeria) with the other slot going to a wild card. Inter Clube remains the most decorated side with five titles won in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Meanwhile, the draw ceremony for the second round of men's "Elite 16" of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2020 qualifying tournaments were held in Abidjan.
The 16 teams are divided into two groups (G and H) of eight teams each, and games will take place in Yaounde (Cameroon) and Kigali (Rwanda).
Group games will take place in Yaounde from November 26 to December 1 while Group H will take place in Kigali from December 17-22. The Kigali group has two pools with KPA men's team up against Ferroviario (Mozambique), Cobra Sports (South Sudan) and Uganda's City Oilers. Hosts side Patriots of Rwanda faces GNBC (Madagascar), UNZA Pacers (Zambia) and Tanzania's JKT.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, where the teams that finish in the first three places will qualify for the Basketball African League regular season in March 2020.
