The draw for the Women s Basketball World Cup was announced, and the Chinese team was eliminated early. Gong Luming s 2.26 meter ace became the key

The draw results for the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup qualifiers were officially announced recently. For the Chinese women's basketball team that aims to return to the top of the world, this group list undoubtedly brings a relatively optimistic signal. According to the lottery arrangement, the Chinese women's basketball team, currently ranked fourth in the world, was divided into Group A and will sit in the home city of Wuhan to compete with five teams including Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Mali and South Sudan. This world preliminaries will be held from March 11 to 17, 2026, using a single round-robin format within the group. According to the promotion rules, since the Belgian team in the same group has already locked a seat in the World Cup main event in advance by virtue of being the European Cup champion, this means that the Chinese women's basketball team is actually competing with the four teams of Brazil, Czech Republic, Mali and South Sudan for the remaining three qualifying places. Judging from the paper strength and past record, the overall level of the Chinese women's basketball team is significantly higher than these opponents. As long as the team can perform normally, it is theoretically not a problem to break out of this group and obtain tickets for the World Cup.

Although the prospects for qualifying are clear, the path to advancement for the Chinese women's basketball team is not without uncertainties. A cautious attitude and adequate preparation are still essential. It is worth noting that the landscape of women's basketball in the world is undergoing subtle changes, especially the rise of some African teams that cannot be underestimated. Take the African champion Nigeria team's outstanding performance in the Olympics as an example. Their final ranking was even one place ahead of the Chinese women's basketball team, which is enough to illustrate the progress of African basketball. Therefore, it is extremely dangerous to think of Mali and South Sudan in the same group as simply giving away points. Any thought of underestimating the enemy may lead to paying a heavy price in the game. At the same time, a phenomenon worthy of attention is that the Serbian team, which has caused a lot of trouble for the Chinese women's basketball team in previous competitions, missed the qualifying rounds this time. It is reported that they only ranked 13th in this year's Women's Basketball European Cup. Their poor record directly disqualified them from participating. This may reflect that the team is experiencing the pain of talent shortage.

Changes in the external competitive environment are certainly worthy of attention, but for the current Chinese women's basketball team, deeper worries come from within the team. The team that passed the last World Cup, returned to the finals after 28 years, and finally won the runner-up, is now facing problems with an incomplete lineup and unclear status of its core players. For example, the 30-year-old main defender Wang Siyu gradually faded out of the national team and even started to get involved in variety show recordings; while another strong core scorer Li Meng was unable to enter the national team roster for some reasons. The aging and absence of the core team has put pressure on head coach Gong Luming's shoulders. The team's upgrading does not seem to have achieved the expected results. The growth rate of personal skills of the young ace player Zhang Ziyu, who has high hopes, has not fully met the expectations of the outside world.

The 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup qualifiers are a journey of both opportunities and difficulties for the Chinese women's basketball team. The favorable grouping situation and the advantage of playing at home have paved a smoother road for the team to advance. However, the improvement in the strength of potential opponents and the turmoil in its own lineup together constitute uncertain factors on the way forward. The absence of the Serbian women's basketball team is a reminder that any team may fall into a trough due to an unsatisfactory transition between the old and the new. If the women's basketball team wants to successfully get tickets to the World Cup in Germany, in addition to taking every group stage opponent seriously, the more important thing is to solve its own internal problems. Gong Luming's guidance on how to deploy the existing cards in hand and inspire the players to be at their best will directly determine the team's final performance and future direction in this qualifier.