Five-day camp to select 12 players as the national team prepares for international competition
Bo Hedges returned this week with Canada’s top wheelchair basketball players for a five-day camp that began Monday in Toronto.
Producer Wonowon is one of 15 athletes vying for 12 spots on the national roster as they prepare for intense international competition over the next two months.
Hedges acknowledges that competition in these camps is growing.
“I train with a bunch of guys here in town, but it’s definitely different. Bringing the 15 best players in the country back together to train naturally raises the bar, so it’s more intense and tiring than your usual daily training.”†
Fortunately, when he lives in Toronto, he can come home at the end of the night, at least for that camp site.
“However, there are other times when this is not the case,” Hedges says. “We have the Dutch team at the end of June, the beginning of July, and we will all be in the hotel to do part of the team building in the qualifiers in July.”
Canada will play the Netherlands, who have already qualified for the World Cup in Dubai in November, in a series of “friendly matches”.
Before that, in early June, the Canadians traveled to Italy for a four-team tournament against the Italians, Spain and Poland, home to the Dutch national team, and then traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the Americas Cup from July 9-19. † †
Eight teams, including Canada and the United States, will compete for four participants in the two worlds.
“At the end of this week, we will know which 12 will go to Italy,” he added.
At the beginning of July, it will be decided who will play for Canada in the Americas Cup and the World Championships.
Hedges works hard to be a part of the selected dozen.
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