LAU hosts basketball practices for Francophone Games

Women’s basketball teams from 11 countries have been invited to use LAU’s court to practice for the sixth Francophone Games currently taking place in Beirut.

September 28, 2009

The Tunisian women's national basketball team practicing for the Francophone Games at the LAU Beirut court.

A group photo of the Canadian players at LAU Beirut.

Click on any photo above to view all five images

LAU is one of two Lebanese universities that have opened their courts to national women’s basketball teams from 11 countries to practice for the sixth Francophone Games, which began yesterday in Beirut and will last until October 6.

The practices are scheduled to last till October 3 at LAU Beirut, and are open to LAU community members interested in watching them.

“We’re very privileged to be given this opportunity,” says Sami Garabedian, Beirut athletics director. “Having 11 national women’s basketball teams practicing at LAU is something to be proud of.”

According to Garabedian, LAU was chosen to host the events after Zeina Mina, the executive director of the Francophone Games Sports Department, and a friend of Garabedian, asked him if the university could make the basketball court available to the players.

“We’ve established ourselves as an excellent university with good facilities,” Garabedian says. “So she [Mina] asked me if there could be any collaboration between LAU and the Francophone Games, and I told her ‘of course,’” he adds.

The Francophone Games are held every four years in a different French-speaking country with the participation of about 3,000 athletes from around 50 countries.

Athletes from Belgium, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, France, Lebanon, Mali, Quebec (Canada), Romania, Senegal and Tunisia have been invited to practice at LAU.

The Tunisian players were the first to take up LAU’s offer on September 25, with the Cameroonian, Canadian, Belgian and French teams following suit over the weekend.

“We will mobilize all our efforts to make the brief passage of our guests from LAU a most enjoyable, pleasant and memorable one,” Garabedian says.

The athletes have also been invited to practice at Antonine University and the Saeb Salam Arena at the Riyadi Club.

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