Basketball: Mollie Campbell to take part in February Olympic qualifiers

Photo: Mark Ferriss

Mollie Campbell

Whitworth basketball star Mollie Campbell will be travelling to China later this month to play in February's qualifying tournament for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Mollie and the rest of the England squad will travel to Foshan to play, with the top three in each group qualifying for the Olympic games.

Sixteen teams have reached the qualifying tournament, drawn into four groups of four. Each group is hosted in a different location, with England having been drawn with China, Spain and Korea.

In terms of current world ranking, Spain is ranked third; China, 8th; England, 18th; and Korea, 19th.

Mollie was most recently part of the Great Britain squad which placed fourth in the EuroBasket tournament, and was part of the GB team which won a Commonwealth silver medal in 2018.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/4/sport-news/131619/basketball-gb-women-to-face-china-korea-and-spain-in-olympic-qualifiers
• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/4/sport-news/118003/basketball-whitworth-student-helps-england-women-win-silver-at-the-commonwealth-games

Speaking to Rochdale Online about the upcoming tournament, Mollie said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for us as it's the first time that we've ever gotten to this stage of competition. No-one expected us to finish fourth at the Europeans, and I believe being the underdog worked in our favour: we knew what we could achieve with the talent we had if we worked hard and stuck to our game plan.

“Now heading into the Olympic qualifiers, we're trying to keep the same positivity and focus as before. It’s all to play for and I'm really excited for the upcoming tournament.”

Mollie, who receives no funding to pursue her sport, has been well-supported in her ambitions to reach the Olympics by local race organiser Andy O’Sullivan.

England’s 2020 Olympic qualifying tournament games

• China – 6 February, 7.35pm GMT
• Korea – 8 February, 3pm GMT
• Spain – 9 February, 3pm GMT