Germany have handed women's coach Imre Szittya a contract that will keep him in the post until 2011 and possibly one more year if he leads the side into the London Olympics.

The 52-year-old Szittya, who was born and used to coach in Hungary, took the reins of the national side before last year's EuroBasket in Italy on a temporary basis and led them to a surprise victory over the Czech Republic but he wasn't able to steer them into quarter-finals.

Pierre Vincent has enjoyed plenty of highs this season with Bourges but he suffered a couple of lows at the EuroLeague Women Final Four.

The French giants, who rebounded from a 1-4 start to finish second in their Qualifying Round Group before sweeping both MKB Euroleasing and Fenerbahce in the play-offs, suffered an overtime defeat to hosts Gambrinus and then lost to a buzzer-beating three-ball by Caroline Aubert of UMMC Ekaterinburg in the third-place game.

France veteran Sandra Le Drean has drawn the curtain on her impressive international career.

The 1.87m small forward, who played for Les Bleues last summer at the EuroBasket Women in Italy, said: "It's with great emotion and after much consideration that I have taken the decision to end my international career.

Italy's women know the teams they will meet in qualifying games for EuroBasket 2009 in Latvia, with hard games coming up against Poland, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Finland.

That was made official on Saturday at the draw in Venice.

EuroBasket Women had highs and lows for German coach Imre Szittya.

The high was a trip to the qualifying round where they upset the Czech Republic.  The low was failing to follow up on the conquest and crashing out with losses to Turkey and eventual semi-finalists Latvia.