The Latvian U18 women’s team started the World Cup in 3 × 3 basketball with victory and loss on Wednesday in Debrecen.
The basketball players of the Latvian team – Marta Blūma, Pauls Cirša, Enija Ķīvīte and Līva Krūmiņa – who were awarded the sixth number in the competition, played in the first fight of group C with 19:12 peer from Israel (18th).
Ķīvīte accumulated ten points, all with long shots, seven points in Krūmiņa’s account, but Rotema Šustere was the most productive with six points.
In the second fight of the day, Latvia gave way to Germany with 11:16, which was placed with the third number in the tournament.
Krūmiņa scored five points in the Latvian national team, four with two long shots – Ķīvīte, two with Cirša.
Friedrich Mici Bihnere stood out in the German team with seven points.
Latvians will play with Indonesia in Group C on Friday (11th).
In group D, Estonia will have only two competitors – Hungary and Switzerland, but in groups A and B, five teams will be drawn. Group A will feature Egypt, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Spain, Romania, while Group B will feature Russia, Belarus, Mongolia, Slovenia and the winners of the last tournament from the United States.
In the women’s tournament, the first number was awarded to Egypt, and the second – to Russia.
On Wednesday, the Latvian athletes with the fifth number – Mārcis Osis, Rinalds Timma, Edgars Vanags and Daniils Smirnovs – in the D group with 19:21 conceded their peers from Slovenia (12th).
In group D, the Latvian national team of U18 will play with the 2019 champions in the USA on Friday, as well as the neighboring Estonians (4th). It is this group that the organizers call the “death group.”
Due to the national team Covid-19, they have also refused to participate in this year’s World Cup, so the number of teams is not the same in several subgroups.
The two strongest teams in each group will enter the elimination tournament. It was originally planned that 20 men’s teams would compete in both men’s and women’s competitions in the World Cup.
The Latvian U18 men’s team in the World Cup, which has been taking place in this age group since 2011, has won the ninth place three times (in 2011, 2013 and 2019), which is the best achievement so far. It will be its debut in the World Cup for the ladies’ team in Debrecen.
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