Three Gurugram girls in silver-winning U-17 basketball team at Paris meet

GURUGRAM: Three girls from the city shone at the

Paris World Games

2017, a multi-discipline youth tournament, as part of the women’s Under-17

basketball

team that won silver.

Noor Lamba

,

Drishti Chander

and

Vedica Kundu

were part of the team which defeated Italy in the semis, but lost to France in the finals. The trio were part of a team comprising 10 girls from Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, sent by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI).

SGFI is the apex body for various sports and games among Indian schools. The body is also responsible for selection of students to participate in national and international tournaments.

The U-17 basketball tournament got under way on July 7. In the semis on July 11, India beat Italy by 58-50, but lost to France 62-65 on July 13.

Following the semifinal victory, they were awarded by French basketball player Evan Fournier. They went to visit Disneyland, Paris to celebrate afterwards.

A Class XI student of the Shri Ram School (science stream), Noor started playing basketball in 2013. She wants to become a pilot in future. Vedica and Drishti (both 16) are arts students of Class XII and XI respectively at Heritage School. Vedica wants to become a lawyer, while Drishti plans to join a Ivy League college in the US after completing school. Team captain Noor said she was overwhelmed at the team winning silver medal for the nation, ahead of her 16th birthday.

“My birthday is on August 1 and this is the best birthday gift ever. I have played 10 nationals earlier, and various district and state level tournaments, but this was a new experience for me,” Noor told TOI. The girls said the exposure at the international tournament helped them pick up new strategies.

“We played with different teams from across the world, learnt new strategies and bonded with players from other countries. Apart from the sport, we learnt a lot about other cultures,” said Vedica.