Amandeep, Anshika win Jr NBA Skill Challenge

New Delhi: Amandeep Singh from Punjab and Mumbai`s Anshika Kanojia earned an all-expenses paid trip to NBA All-Star 2013 in Houston, Texas after the two emerged as winners in the Junior NBA and WNBA Skill Challenge respectively on Sunday.

Amandeep and Anshika, both 12-year-old, received the trophy from Uttah Jazz guard Raja Bell after they set a winning time of 30.79 seconds and 35.26 seconds in their respective categories. Around 50 participants in the age group of 10 to 12 years battled it out for supremacy in the finals at the Thyagaraj Stadium here. Ten winners (five boys and five girls) from each of the five cities -- Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Chandigarh, and Delhi -- had earned the spot in the national finals. The event was organised by the National Basketball Association (NBA), in collaboration with the HP and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). The competitors were subjected to a series of timed skills tests, which served to measure each child`s ability in key fundamentals such as dribbling, passing and shooting. The finals marked the end of the 2012 program, through which the lessons about the game were given to around 10,000 students and 800 coaches in five Indian cities. PTI