GBR - Busy warm-ups for Olympic-bound British teams
LONDON (Olympics) - Great Britain's women will be taking on some of the best teams in the world before they compete at the London Games as the host nation.
British Basketball have announced warm-up schedules for both of their Olympic sides.
The British women, who are coached by Tom Maher and advanced from the Preliminary Round at the EuroBasket Women 2011 in Poland, have also taken giant strides.
They are to have a training camp in Surrey, England, from 5-25 May.
They will play at Croatia, who are in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Women, in games 28-29 May, before moving on to Belgium where they will face Ukraine, Germany and Belgium (1-3 June).
Maher's squad will have clashes in Edinburgh 9-10 June against Canada and then fly to Turkey and take on the Turks (15-17 June), who are hosting the OQT for Women.
Turkey beat the Brits at the EuroBasket Women.
The Czech Republic women will warm up for the OQT with games against Maher's team 19-20 June and then from 2-4 July, Maher will return to China - the national team he coached at the Beijing Olympics - to coach Britain in friendly games against Angola, Russia and the Chinese.
The women's team's busy schedule will continue in Sheffield (13-15 July) with games against Angola, Australia and France.
And on 18 July - one day before the men play in Manchester against the USA - the Team GB women will square off at Manchester Arena with the defending Olympic and world champions Americans who are coached by Geno Auriemma.
"We have a critical period together as a team ahead of the Games this summer where we will be able to fully prepare and ensure we put the best team possible out on court when we arrive in Stratford in July," Maher said.
