By Lauren Mattera 

Jannik Blair of AustraliaMarch 1 - Basketball Australia has announced its under-23 men's wheelchair basketball training squad, which includes London 2012 silver medallist Jannik Blair, in preparation for the 2013 World Championships in Turkey later this year.

The 17-member team, who were selected from the Australian Development Camp, will be heading to their training location in Canberra next week to prepare for the Championships.

Also making their way to the Australian capital will be Michael Auprince, Jordan Bartley, Marcus Chiavelli, Steven Elliott, Bradley Fisher, Jake Fulwood, Clarence Groga, Kayl Jeffery, Jake Kavanagh, Tim Mackrow, Joshua Meoli, Ryan Morich, Bailey Rowland, Keegan Oh-Chee, Tom O'Neill-Thorne and Luke Pople.

The Australian's were edged out of a place on the podium at the 2009 World Championships in France finishing fourth in the world rankings behind Sweden, while the United States and Spain finished first and second respectively.

Australia won the silver medal in the London 2012 Paralympic wheelchair basketball tournamentAustralia won the silver medal in the London 2012 Paralympic wheelchair basketball tournament

"The players attending next week's training camp are the current cream of a solid high performance programme that Basketball Australia has provided as a pipeline to the Australian men's senior team," said Basketball Australia chief executive Kristina Keneally.

"To be selected into a World Championship training squad is something they should be immensely proud of and we wish them all the best as they begin their preparations for an important year ahead."

Following the five-day training camp, a 12-man team will be chosen to compete in the Qualification Tournament for the Asia Oceania Zone in June in Thailand.

"At this stage, we haven't decided if we will take a full squad of 12 to the qualifiers in Thailand in June, but the aim next week is to take a look at the combinations," said head coach Tom Kyle.

"In wheelchair basketball, unlike able bodied basketball, we have points limitations, which means we have to look at what we can put on the floor at any one time.

"The point of this camp is to finalise our preferred combinations and then to select those players who best match the combinations we come up, with who we believe will put us in a position to ultimately secure a medal at the World Championships."

The competition, which began in 1997 and has taken place every four years since, will include 12 teams from across the world formed through classification points based on player's functional ability.

Turkey, as the host nation, has an automatic spot, while all other teams will earn their spot at qualification tournaments which will take place in each of the four International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) zones over the next year.

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