From Isabelle Rondeau, PA International

Sandra Dijon has emerged as a vital component for France ahead of the EuroBasket Women.

The 29-year-old center, a reserve in France's 2003 squad that played in Patras, is coming off a solid season with Puig d'en Valls in Spain's Liga Femenina and has carried the form into Les Bleues' preparation games for next month's Championships.

"Those games have shown the great efficiency of Sandra Dijon and despite other great displays from other players, she is definitely the greatest surprise," said France coach Alain Jardel on the French Basketball Federation's official website.

"Her physical form and her self-confidence allows us to think that we can definitely count on her."

Jardel is pleased overall with his side's progress in the build-up to the EuroBasket Women, which will be staged in Turkey.

France won as hosts in 2001 but a younger team finished fifth two years ago in Greece.

They will go into the 2005 tournament as dark horses to prevail.

At the end of July, the French team travelled to Lorient at the end of July for their first tournament where they beat Hungary, Poland and Canada.

Last weekend, they played in Novi Sad against Serbia Montenegro and won against Russia, Serbia Montenegro and China, Jardel is optimistic.

"We performed very well in Novi Sad with three victories in three matches against big basketball nations," Jardel said.

"We can be very proud of ourselves.

"Firstly, with Russia we had a superb game against Russia as we grabbed victory (98-97) after double overtime.

"The result against Serbia (61-47) does not reflect the reality of the encounter as they posed us a lot of problems throughout the match.

"Finally against China, whom we defeated by single point, we fought against a very strong side...

"The Chinese women play a tough brand of basketball and have tall players. They will definitely be dangerous during the Beijing Games in 2008."

Jardel says he has not yet finalised his final squad for Euro 2005 although a few players such as Dijon have been outstanding.

Audrey Sauret, Cathy Melain, Sandra Le Drean or Nathalie Ledesma, who have been key players for the French team for years, will be in the final squad.

Sabrina Palie, Sabrina Raghaissa or Caroline Koaechlin, however, have not had much time to show their potential.

"Unfortunately, those difficult games did not allow us to test sufficiently the players we had taken with us in that aim and who are not yet part of the skeleton of the team.

"But as a whole, it was important for our confidence to win all the matches and to make the usual key players play."

The French side will next travel to Hagondange for another preparation tournament from August 11 to 16 during which they will face Russia and China again as well as Latvia.

They will then go to Orleans and Izmir.

"We have another four weeks of work before we start the competition," said Jardel.

"We are approaching the second part of our preparation with some apprehension for two reasons.

"Firstly, the tournament we were meant to play in Turkey just before the start of the Euro (EuroBasket) has been reduced to one single game which means we will not play at all during the four days prior to the competition.

"Secondly, there will be 16 of us still in Hagondange which means I will have to make decisions until the last minute.

"This is the most delicate part of my job which I am dreading in a way because we are experiencing a fantastic human adventure with the players and making choices is always tough."