Dominican women’s national team travels to Nicaragua to compete in Centrobasket 2026

SANTO DOMINGO, DR.- The Dominican Basketball Federation (Fedombal) defined on Thursday its senior women’s national team that will compete from July 12 to 18, in the 2026 Centrobasket Championship, which will be held in the city of Managua, Nicaragua.

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Eight countries will participate in this edition of the tournament that will be played at the Alexis Argüello sports center, in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, which were divided into two groups.

The Dominican team will depart this Friday for Nicaragua, through the Las Américas International Airport.

Group A includes the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the Bahamas, and the hosts, Nicaragua, while Group B features Puerto Rico, Guyana, the Virgin Islands, and El Salvador, in a tournament that awards three spots for the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup to be held in El Salvador in 2027.

El Salvador, as the host country, has its ticket secured for that continental event.

The Dominican team was composed of star player Esmery Martínez, Cesarina Capellán, Yohanna Morton, Yennifer Jiménez, Katina Benítez, Aurora Almon, Iliana Sosa, Yirsy Queliz, Madelyn Batista, Rocío Jiménez, Yadira Polanco, and Melissa Cabral.

The manager of the Dominican team is the Cuban coach Alberto Zabala, and his coaching staff is made up of Ariel Portuondo, Miguel Reyes, Sugey Monsac, the physiotherapist is Marvin Zamora, and the delegate is Enmanuel Trinidad.

The first match for the Dominicans will be on Sunday the 12th of this month, at 7:00 p.m., against the Bahamas, and at the same time they will face Mexico on Monday the 13th, then, they will rest on Tuesday the 14th, and on Wednesday the 15th they will go against Nicaragua, at 9:30 p.m.

New format

-For this edition of the tournament, a new competition system comes into effect:

-Each team will play one match against every opponent in their group

-The winners of each group will advance directly to the Semifinals

-The last ones of each group will play for the fifth to eighth places

-Those who finish in second place in their group will face those in third place of the opposite group (2B vs. 3A and 2A vs. 3B). The winners of these two matches will advance to the semifinals and will cross with the first-place teams of each group, while the losers will face the last-place teams of each group for the fifth to eighth positions

-Puerto Rico has won the last four editions of this tournament, previously known as the Women’s Centrobasket Championship.