Mongolian team became the winner of the FIBA U17 Skills Challenge 2020, while China celebrated success in the FIBA U17 Women's Skills Challenge 2020.
In the final of the competition, Mongolian team confidently won their Bulgarian counterparts – 99:124. On August 21, the national team of Belarus, which was one of the eight strongest teams in the competition, lost to the Bulgarians in the quarterfinals – 128:116, thus stopping the further struggle for awards.
Team Guinea takes the bronze.
Chinese team became the winners among girls; in the competition for gold medals, they defeated their rivals from Poland with a minimum score – 118:119.
Basketball team from Spain gained the bronze.
We would like to remind you that the group stage of the European regional qualifiers took place within two days (13-14 August), 10 girls and boys teams from the Old World competed there. The Belarusians proved to be one of the fastest and most accurate teams among the participants of all continental selections throughout the whole challenge.
At the end of two days of qualifiers, two best teams of both genders in the group reached the final of the conference (4 teams total).
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. As a result, the boys confirmed their status in qualifiers final, confidently beating the Romanians.
On the first day of the group stage of the world finals, on 18th August, our guys gained two confident victories over their opponents from Uganda and Turkey, setting a world record twice – 111 points. On the second day, on 19th August, the boys lost to Mongolia. As a result, from the 2nd place in Group C of the final part of the Global Challenge, Aliaksei Sukhavetski's team went to the quarterfinals, where they unfortunately could not beat their Bulgarian opponents.
The Men’s National Team of the Republic of Belarus (boys U-17): Milasheuski Illia, Shcherbakov Roman, Yudkin Aliaksei, Nadzeyeu Mikita, Shestukov Egor, Terehov Ivan, Bachkar Aliaksei, Yarmolchyk Yahor, Kachalouski Viktar.
The head coach Aliaksei Sukhavetski chooses five participants for each challenge from the above-mentioned players.
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. The winner is the team with the lowest number of points per performance.
Initially 35 national federations, including the national team of Belarus, declared their teams to participate in regional qualifying tournaments of basketball skill contest. 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 – Panama, Thailand, Portugal, Guinea, Uganda, Belarus, Mongolia, Puerto Rico) 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 qualifiers – Antigua and Barbuda, Cameroon, Guatemala, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Poland, Thailand).
Belarusian girls did not make it to Global Challenge: in the final of the regional qualifiers, our girls lost to the rivals from Luxembourg.
According to FIBA information letter, all participants will receive memorable prizes from the tournament organizers.
The Belarusian Basketball Federation also received a letter in which FIBA President Hamane Niang and FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis congratulated the Men's team on their progress in the finals of the competition, as well as expressed their opinion on the high level of organization in our country.
“Your federation showed high level of organization and capability in adjusting to the requirements of this new Competition. Your participation serves as an example of resilience in these difficult times under the COVID-19 pandemic and signals the gradual Return to Basketball. We would like to personally thank you, your staff and players for the close cooperation in this regard. Kindly also share our best wishes for success with your Men’s team participating in the FIBA U17 Skills Challenge 2020 this week. Please receive our Best Wishes for health and safety,” says FIBA letter.
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