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Six-time NBL champion Jesse Wagstaff will headline Australia’s 3×3 basketball squad for the sport’s inaugural Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Wagstaff is the current Perth Wildcats captain, one of the most enduringly successful franchises in Australian sport, and is the only member the Australian 3×3 squad with previous Commonwealth Games experience.
Dual Asia Cup 3×3 gold medallist Thomas Wright has also been named on the men’s team for Birmingham, alongside Adelaide 36ers big man Daniel Johnson and Wagstaff’s former Wildcats teammate Greg Hire.
“I love Basketball 3×3’s physicality, speed and intensity,” Wagstaff, who won gold with the 5×5 team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, said.
“Once we get on the court it’s all systems go, which makes it a fantastic spectator sport.”
Each member of the women’s team consisting of Alex Wilson, Lauren Scherf, Marena Whitle and Lauren Mansfield bring extensive WNBL experience to their Commonwealth Games debuts.
“Representing your country is the highest of highs for me – there is nothing better than that,” dual WNBL champion Wilson said.
Luke Pople, Lachlin Dalton, Kurt Thomson and Jake Kavanagh make up the men’s Para-basketball team in the 3×3 format, with Amber Merritt, Georgia Inglis, Hannah Dodd and Elle Sabljack selected for the women’s.
“It’s so exciting to be a part of history as the first wheelchair 3×3 athletes to compete at a Commonwealth Games,” Dodd said.
The first game of 3×3 basketball in Commonwealth Games history tips off on July 29.
The sport made its Olympic debut in Tokyo last year but Australia did not feature in either the women’s or men’s events.
© AAP
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