VILNIUS, Lithuania (2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) – The draw for the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women was held in Vilnius on Thursday, ahead of this summer’s tournament that will take place in Lithuania from 18-28 July.

The 16 teams, hailing from all five of FIBA’s Continental Zones, were divided into four groups of four teams for the Preliminary Round (18-20 July), played in a standard round-robin format.

Group A: Brazil, Serbia, Korea, Russia
Group B: Argentina, Japan, Spain, Australia
Group C: Canada, France, Netherlands, Senegal
Group D: Mali, USA, Lithuania, China

The three top placed teams from each group will qualify for the Eight-Final Round (22-24 July), which consists of two groups of six. In this round, each team will face the three new teams in their group. Cido Arena (Panevezys) and Svyturio Arena (Klaipeda) will host the Preliminary and Eight-Final Rounds.

The top eight teams from the Eight-Final Round will advance to the Final Round which will be staged at Svyturio Arena. The Quarter-Finals will be on Friday 26 July, with the Semi-Finals following on Saturday 27 July and the Finals on Sunday 28 July.

The USA will go to Lithuania as the defending champions, having won their fifth consecutive U19 Women gold medal in Puerto Montt, Chile in 2011. They beat Spain in the Final, while Brazil edged out Australia in the Bronze Medal Game.

The FIBA U19 World Championship for Women is where the stars of tomorrow are born. Past editions of the tournament have seen a number of international stars in the making, including Diana Taurasi, Erika de Souza and Eva Viteckova (2001); Lauren Jackson, Lijie Miao and Hamchetou Maiga Ba (1997); Janeth Arcain and Lisa Leslie (1989) and more recently Elizabeth Cambage (2009).