Twelve months down the line and Commonwealth silver still hasn’t sunk in for Nicolette Fong.
The Great Britain and Team England basketball star made her international bow at last year’s Gold Coast Games, helping her team to second place and a record finish for England at the competition.
An auspicious debut for her country, the guard is desperate that their successes won’t stop Down Under, and that it can only serve to inspire the next generation of international hopefuls as she prepares to celebrate the special anniversary.
“It was one of the best moments of my life,” said the Manchester-born player.
“Looking at the Facebook memories that came up, it was just an amazing moment. I’ll always have a bond with these people. I wish I could go back, I really do!
“I looked up to other people and whenever you see a role model in the sport that’s doing well it makes you want to keep trying to play and it makes you know that you can do it yourself too.
“I’m happy that I get to be first and I get to represent that.”
SLAM JAM: Basketball England are rolling out their new programme ahead of a busy summer to get younger generations keen on the sport
Speaking at Slam Jam – Basketball England’s new programme which aims to introduce the sport to primary school-aged children across the country – Fong is now getting herself ready to don international colours once again.
This summer’s EuroBasket competition in Serbia and Latvia gets under way in June, and presents with it a crucial opportunity for GB to take the next step on the global stage.
“We want to at least have the chance to qualify for the Olympics,” she continued.
“That would mean everything! That’s the goal, to play at the highest level of sport, so hopefully we can do that. I believe in the group that we have.”
“Like we’ve done for the rest of the qualifiers – we’ve played hard, stuck together – all we have to worry about is playing our best and we’ll see what the result is after that.
“We start camp really soon, so we’ll have a long camp to prepare for it. At the moment everyone’s doing their individual thing, getting ready for it and then we’ll come together as a team and hopefully do really well there.”
Slam Jam is Basketball England’s ground-breaking new grassroots participation programme to give 7-11-year-olds their first experience of basketball. To find out more, visit www.basketballengland.co.uk/get-involved/play/types-of-basketball/slam-jam
