In the 3×3 game, the basketball players defeated only Mongolia and did not advance to the Olympics

Illustrative photo.

Marcio Jose Sanchez, ČTK / AP

The Czech team consisting of Daniel Zach, Roman Zachrla, Ondřej Šiška and Vladimír Sismilich first played a balanced duel for hope with the Turks. However, he did not manage the ending from the state of 17:17 and even before the last duel, his hopes for Olympic participation were definitely extinguished.

“We played here probably the best match comparable to Poland with the same conclusion, when we lose the won match in the last 35 seconds,” coach Michael Kruk regretted on the federal website. “Our biggest weakness turned out to be absolutely, and this is a one-on-one game.

However, his charges said goodbye to the tournament with a convincing victory over the limit over the highest-ranking Mongolia. Thanks to the 50% success rate of long-distance shooting, they prepared the first defeat for the Asian team in its third match. Zach, who was the Czechs’ best scorer against the Turks with eight points, and Zachrla, with seven points.

“In the last match, beating one of the biggest favorites of the tournament and the reigning Asian champions is really a super nice bonus at the end, but there’s a big one here, which offers a lot of sub-questions as to why we didn’t play from the beginning and why we didn’t finish stated Kruk.

The tournament was originally scheduled to take place last March in Bangalore, India, but was prevented by a coronavirus pandemic that delayed the Olympic Games for a year. The Czech men’s national team was given the right to start in a qualifying tournament based on the world rankings, women did not get into the selection.

Eight teams in each category will take part in the premiere Olympic 3×3 basketball tournament. Certain participants are among the men of the domestic national team and, based on the previous year’s world rankings, China, Russia and Serbia, and women of Russia, China, Mongolia and Romania. After the tournament in Austria, the remaining participants in each category will be determined by an additional qualification in Debrecen (4-6 July). The Czechs can no longer start on it.