The final round of the European qualifiers of the competition was held yesterday on 16 August.
4 best teams of the continent took part in the group stage.
Belarusian boys proved to be one of the fastest and most accurate teams among the participants of all continental selections throughout the whole challenge. As a result, they confirmed their status in the final of the qualifiers, confidently winning the Romanians.
Our girls also made it to the final of the conference, where in the decisive competition for a ticket to the Global Challenge have lost only one point to the representatives of Luxembourg.
The group stage of the European regional selection took place within two days (13-14 August), 10 girls and boys teams from the Old World have competed there.
European Qualifiers (men):
Group A: Poland, Israel, Belarus, Slovakia, Ireland.
Group B: Latvia, Georgia, Romania, Portugal, Gibraltar.
European Qualifiers (women):
Group A: Belarus, Poland, Israel, Ireland, Gibraltar.
Group B: Latvia, Slovakia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Georgia.
At the end of two days of qualifiers, 2 best men's and women's teams in the group reached the final of the conference (a total of 4 teams).
In the decisive battle for the right to represent Europe in the World finals of the competition, the following pairs of boy’s teams faced each other: Ireland – Portugal, Romania – Belarus. The following pairs were competing among the girl’s teams: Poland – Latvia, Luxembourg – Belarus. According to the rules of competition, two winners take part in the final part of the competition.
Note: 35 national federations, including BBF, participated in the Skills Challenges 2020 regional Qualifiers to get a chance to pass to the final part of the Global Challenge. The tournament replaced the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cups that were cancelled due to COVID-19. 16 boys (8 teams – Italy, Egypt, Spain, Australia, Turkey, Bulgaria, China, Mali – had "wild card", another 8 – were determined after the regional selections in Africa, America, Asia and Europe) and 16 girls teams (9 teams – Lithuania, Mali, Spain, Australia, Egypt, Italy, Puerto Rico, Romania, China – had "wild card", the other 7 were determined during the regional selections).
According to the competition system, each team have meet in absentia with opponents within their group. The competition was recorded on video and then sent to FIBA to determine the accuracy and speed of each team.
Belarusian Basketball Federation held a training camp for Skills Challenge candidates, the following players were there: Tserabei Anhelina, Damianiuk Palina, Novik Katsiaryna, Bernatskaya Yauheniya, Tsitavets Alena, Sedach Karalina, Sporyk Natallia, Shyshliuk Yelizaveta, Ruksha Anastasiya, Yakubovich Aliaksandra, Burava Darya, Pishchaka Lizaveta, Milasheuski Illia, Shcherbakov Roman, Yudkin Aliaksei, Nadzeyeu Mikita, Shestukov Egor, Terehov Ivan, Bachkar Aliaksei, Yarmolchyk Yahor, Kachalouski Viktar.
The final rosters of five were determined just before each competition day.
The women's team was training under the leadership of Mikalai Buzliakou, the men's team – under the leadership of Aliaksei Sukhavetski. The head coaches of the National Teams – Nataliya Trafimava and Rostislav Vergun – proposed these coaches during the BBF Executive Committee.
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