Matīss Rožlapa Photo: LBS
The European Division of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has drawn the groups of the 2022 European Youth Championships (ECC), thus the young Latvian basketball players have also found out their opponents, the Latvian Basketball Union (LBS) informed on Tuesday.
The U20 women’s team will play in the Division A tournament in Sopron, Hungary, from July 8-16. The Latvian basketball player, born in 2002/2003, will play with peers from Serbia, Russia and Ireland under the leadership of head coach Matiss Rožlapas. If the U-20 national team enters the eighth final, then it will be necessary to meet one of the teams of Group C of the tournament – Spain, Poland, Lithuania or Bulgaria.
The U20 men’s team, led by head coach Davy Choder, will take part in the Division B tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 15-24. Latvian basketball players born in 2002/2003 have been drawn into Group C, where they will meet with national teams from Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Ireland. The two best teams will continue the fight for a ticket to Division A.
The juniors born in 2004/2005, led by Juris Umbraško, will play in the Group B tournament of Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland and Romania U18 from July 29 to August 7 in Oradea, Romania. The top two teams in the knockout tournament will continue to fight for a ticket to Division A.
U18 junior head coach Aigars Nerip will take part in the A division tournament in Heraklion, Greece on August 6-14. Basketball players born in Group B in 2004/2005 will compete with the Czech, Belgian and Greek teams. Entering the eighth final, a team from Group A will compete, with Spain, Italy, Poland and Turkey drawn.
The team of U16 boys, trained by Gata Melder, will play with Turkish, Italian and Polish cadets in the first stage of the Division A tournament in Skopje, Northern Macedonia, on August 12-20. The boys born in 2006 and younger who made it to the eighth final will be faced by one of the teams in Group D: Spain, Greece, Russia and Northern Macedonia.
The Latvian U16 girls’ team, which includes basketball players from 2006 and younger, will play in the A division tournament in the Portuguese city of Matuzinju on August 19-27. The cadets trained by Ainars Čukste are in group C, which includes teams from Portugal, Russia and Belgium. After that, in the first round of the elimination tournament, the team from Group D, which includes Greece, the Czech Republic, Denmark and France, will face off.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Division of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) canceled the 2020 European Youth Championships, but in the summer of 2021, the Challenger tournaments were held, the results of which did not affect the official ranking table. At the end of September, FIBA approved the schedule for the 2022 European Championships.
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