Dayna and Maggie are Euro bound with Ireland

The Ireland Under 20 women’s team, featuring Kiltimagh natives Dayna Finn and Maggie Byrne, will tip off their 2019 FIBA Under 20 Women’s European Championship Division B campaign in Kosovo this coming Saturday.

Many of this year's team featured on the hugely successful Ireland Under 18 team in 2017 that won a silver medal at the European Championships in Dublin and got Ireland promoted to Division A basketball for the first time in the country's history.

This year’s squad, led by head coach Martin Conroy, have been drawn in Group B alongside Ukraine and Great Britain.

They will face Ukraine in their opening game on Saturday (August 3) and Great Britain in their second game on Sunday (August 4). After rest days on Monday and Tuesday, classification games will be played from Wednesday (August 7) through Sunday (August 11).

Looking ahead to the championships, Conroy stated: “We’re all really excited about the championships. We can’t wait to get out there and play our games. The team is ready and we’ve been practising hard over the past number of months.

“Our first game against Ukraine will be tough. They’re coming into the clash off the back of a big warm-up win against Germany last week and have some new players from when they competed in Dublin at Under 18 level two years ago. We’ll have to match them physically and make sure we don’t give up too many fast break points. If we can take care of the ball on offense that will help. It should be a great game and I’m confident we will be a tough team to beat.”

Dayna and Maggie, both of NUI Galway and Maree BC, were on the Irish Under 18 team in 2017. You can follow their fortunes at this year's Under 20 tournament at http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u20bwomen/2019