At the door of Lucho Fernández (distanced) the groups of shooters (3 x team) wait to enter. A year ago no one could have imagined the scene. It seems another world we are talking about, that of December 2019, about More relaxed City Games, without the feeling that the person who greets us may be transmitting a potentially deadly virus.
How does it affect the sports activity of young people, the main interested in expending so much energy accumulated during months of preventive confinement? How to stimulate them in the sport of the orange if they cannot develop the cherry of the dessert, which is the 5 vs 5 game, and when they are not even authorized to develop contact activities? Difficult to program and design, a challenge for coaches, and also, the real reasons for so much desertion in the restart of individual training in clubs. The number of entries shows that the desire to continue shooting at the hoop and have fun is still intact.
Nicolás Torres Meandri, 14, athlete of the San Miguel club and that he achieved third position with the shooting trio called Los Gladiadores, he told us that “the feeling of shooting at the hoop competing again is beautiful, and even more with friends. Next year I hope the tournaments will return and have my place in the team, always having fun and contributing to win games ”. The garnet guard culminated his reflection with that “I felt confident and secure on Thursday when we qualified for the final after the triple draw, and on Friday we were not so accurate.”
Olivia Tiseyra, teacher of inferiors and player of First Division Santa, She told us that “we did not expect to win against the male as the idea and the focus was on the female, we faced it very relaxed, the registration was for fun. For next year, like any athlete, the desire is for a return to competition. We miss that extra activity that the sport and the club give you, obviously we are super grateful to be able to return this little time and it helps to have hope for next year ”.
The Tournament takes place in triple throw mode. There was at one time a prospect of Skills Challenge, but it didn’t work out. The Municipality, through its sports area, bet on the simple so as not to complicate or complicate others. In a joint work with LIBAR, a concise and easy-to-understand protocol was designed. The teams in the waiting room, no authorization from the public in the stands, clean toilets, impeccable court, balls in 3 carts with a double value color, a test shot per position to each participant, and combined clash in direct elimination. Noteworthy is the task of the teachers in charge of the event. Everything unfolded clearly, with tie-breaks based on continuing to shoot and not on draws, and the adrenaline sensation that a sport as vibrant as basketball has in the city of Río Gallegos was re-lived.
In general the percentages they were low (around 20 percent in effectiveness), because the eternal practice stop was present at the time of shooting. In the words of Christian Smart, director of Sports of the Municipality of Río Gallegos, “we are very grateful to all the participants and the municipal staff, we have a total of 25 teams of both sexes, of all ages and categories and it is the first step to to go back with all the precautions to a sports development like the one we knew ”. In the Female Category, the winners were Las Santas. In Free mode, Los Celestes. Anecdotal details of two days where the important thing is that basketball once again felt alive, competitive, in the city of Río Gallegos.
Due to the characteristics of the climate, Indoor sports occupy a predominant place in our geography, and they are the best refuge from the lost hours of young people, those blank spaces of boredom where vices and bad manners generally find the front door. Keeping the flame of effort and improvement alive, even in times of pandemic, is a collective effort that must find us as a society at the foot of the canyon. Very especially to parents. The beneficiaries of the effort, the youth, are the main stakeholders.
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