THORPE Bay’s Imani Whittington has captained England’s under-18 side to an 11th place finish in the European Basketball Championships.

Whittington led her national side in impressive fashion in Bosnia.

And she was honoured to have been given the opportunity.

“There is no greater honour than to be selected as captain for my country in a sport that I am so passionate about, “said Whittington.

“Not only did I have to step up my game on court, but I really had to work on my mentality in order for me to push both myself and my team.”

However, Whittington was slightly disappointed to have not finished higher in the tournament.

And the teenager feels a lack of funding could have resulted in England being unable to secure a top-three finish.

“Despite not placing as highly in the tournament as we had anticipated, I’m proud of the major improvements we made every time we stepped on the court,” said Whittington.

“But it is definitely a shame that, due to funding cuts, we are not able to train and play together as often as our international counterparts.

“I feel that with more time and practice together as team we would have been able to compete for medal places.

“This was evident in our game against Estonia, as we lost initially; but as we played more as a team, we beat them later on in the tournament,” Whittington added. “Nevertheless, the experience was amazing.”

Whittington averaged 8.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 25 minutes per game. And off the court she also got to look around the local area, including the city that was under siege by Serbian forces between 1992 and 1996 during in the Bosnian War.

“On one of our rest days we went into the main town of Sarajevo,” said Whittington.

“It was heart-rendering to see bullet holes in many of the buildings and to immerse ourselves in Bosnia’s difficult history.”