France power forward Sandrine Gruda was honoured with the 2006 FIBA Europe Young Women's Player of the Year Award before the tip-off of Sunday's 2007 EuroBasket Women gold medal match between Russia and Spain.

The Cannes native, who just turned 20 in June, has already twice been named MVP of the French league while also helping Valenciennes to the 2006 Final Four of the Women EuroLeague. Gruda also competed for France at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Brazil, averaging 12.0 points and 6.0 rebounds.

France is one of the best defensive teams in Europe and in the world too. After the loss against the USA in the second round of the last World Championship, the American coach Ann Donovan was surprised by the intensity and the physical abilities of France saying, “defensively, it is the best team I've seen so far.