By Joan Danés

 

Chinese Yanhao Zhao (’97) will end the U17 World Championship as one of the best scorers of the tournament after averaging 19.7 points per game (without counting the one of today against France). And he must be happy because few days ago he told: "our target is the top-8. We want to try our best". Today they battle against France for the final seventh spot. 

 

Albert Schweitzer Tournament of Mannheim helped China a lot. "We saw that all the teams were offensively and defensively better than us. We learned how to play the pick and roll, and that helped me learn to get more shots", explained Zhao. The 6’4" shooting-guard of Zhejiang Guangsha, who started to play at the age of 8, added that his strengths are shooting and physical condition, while weakness is ball-handling. And goals? "Not thinking about future. I just want to play each game". 

 

The other big key of Chinese performance is Jinqiu Hu (’97). Zhao told: "he has played well and has a good attitude. He rebounds well. Is a good player". 

 

Photo: FIBA

 

Twitter of the author: @joandanes (with the help of @heinnews. Link here)