The wave of Covid-19 infections grew and swept away the Argentine women’s basketball team. Two new cases, that of Diana Cabrera and that of kinesiologist Mario Piñero, plus close contact with Julieta Mungo led to the Argentine squad being reduced to only 5 available players, two less than the minimum required by the regulations. In this way, Argentina was disqualified from the Americup and thus also loses the possibility of playing the next World Cup.
This was the outcome of a story that had its first bad news as soon as the team arrived in Puerto Rico to play the continental tournament. Melisa Gretter and Agostina Burani tested positive in the first tests and that also left Andrea Boquete out of the tournament due to close contact. FIBA enabled Macarena Rosset because she had previously been infected with the virus and had the necessary antibodies to be healthy and able to compete.
With 9 players Argentina managed to beat the Dominican Republic in the debut and then lost on the second day to Puerto Rico. But the chain of infections continued. The next on the list was Victoria Llorente, who joined the disaffected along with her roommate Julieta Alé. So, FIBA decided to postpone the match against Venezuela until obtaining the results of the counter-tests. The confirmation of the positives plus the new cases determined that Argentina no longer had the minimum number of players in the squad to continue in the competition.
???? FIBA statement about Argentina’s games in the Women’s AmeriCup 2021
???? FIBA statement on the games of Argentina in the Women’s AmeriCup 2021https: //t.co/gFbiad4Wbv
— FIBA Women’s AmeriCup (@americupw) June 15, 2021
FIBA determined, then, that the matches that Argentina had to play against Venezuela and the United States were canceled and that the two that had already played were canceled. Thus, the selected team led by Gregorio Martínez is left out of the tournament and the other four teams from Group B access the quarterfinals.
After the disqualification, Argentina also lost the possibility of competing for a place in the 2022 World Cup as the Americup delivers four places for the qualifiers to the World Cup.
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