DgcityChina’s young 3×3 basketball players came within a basket of the Youth Olympic title, losing the women’s final 12-11 to Poland in Dakar on Monday after a grueling run through the one-day knockout rounds.
The team of Sun Hanyun, Gu Manjie, Zhu Zihan and Tang Yihan had edged host Senegal 21-19 in the semifinals earlier the same day, with both games played in temperatures reaching 36 degrees Celsius. Senegal’s home crowd made the last-four contest one of the loudest of the Games, and China had to hold off a late push to reach the final.
The final turned into a defensive grind in the half-court heat. In 3×3, baskets inside the arc are worth one point and shots beyond it two, and games are played to 21 or until the 10-minute clock expires. Neither team could get anything going offensively, and Poland edged the low-scoring contest by a single point.
Coach Liu Shengbin said his players had carried real pressure into the final and made mistakes, but he offered no criticism. “They gave everything they had. I don’t think there is anything to regret,” he said. The squad had dealt with weather, time differences and unfamiliar food in its preparations, and the teenagers had little experience of international competition.
The path to the final had been smooth on paper. China topped Group A with a 21-4 win over Fiji and a 20-15 defeat of Kenya, then beat the Czech Republic 21-14 in the quarterfinals after opening a 5-0 lead inside the first minute. A mid-game dip against the Czechs briefly let their opponents rally, but China steadied.
The silver is a useful marker for a format the sport’s global governing body has pushed hard, with 3×3 now established at both the senior Olympics and Youth Olympics. The half-court game rewards quick decision-making and outside shooting, and China’s teenagers showed both for stretches in Dakar.
Senegal won the men’s final, beating Lithuania 14-13, to cap a rousing day for the host country. China’s players left with the country’s first 3×3 medal at a Youth Olympics, a loss they won’t forget and a result built to build on.
