U16 Challenger (boys): victory over Lithuania in a suitcase. on Monday with Germany

The Latvian U16 boys team (born in 2005) will start in the FIBA ​​Challenger tournament in Sofia on Monday, August 16. The opponents of the Latvian team in Group B will be Germany (August 16 at 2 pm), Croatia (August 17 at 2 pm), Poland (August 18 at 2 pm), Spain (August 20 at 5 pm) and Bulgaria ( August 21 – time to be specified) teams. The winners of the first or second place will receive a ticket to the U17 World Cup in Spain next summer (the Spanish are guaranteed a place as organizers). Live games will be available at https://www.fiba.basketball/europe/challengers/u16/2021

TOURNAMENT STATUS. Due to the difficult epidemiological situation, the Board of the International Basketball Federation’s European Zone (FIBAEurope) canceled the 2021 European Youth Championships. In order to ensure the practice of games, an informal competition series – FIBA ​​Challengers – will be organized. In the U16 age group, the 18 best teams in the European ranking table were divided into three top six. Tournaments take place in Skopje (Group A), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Novi Sad (Serbia). The results of the tournament will not affect the countries’ positions in the official FIBA ​​youth team ranking, however, there is a serious incentive in the U16 group – 5 teams will get the right to start in the U17 World Cup in the summer of 2022.

SYSTEM. Round tournament – no playoffs.

ORIENTIERI. This will be the first official competition in the U16 group. The points accumulated in previous years in the FIBA ​​ranking table do not give an accurate picture of the ability of a particular team.

COMPOSITION OF LATVIA. The team includes students from Bauska, Cēsis, Ogre, Valmiera, Ventspils, as well as Riga sports basketball schools “Rīga” / DSN and “Rīga / A.Kraukļa VEF”.

HEAD COACH. Agris Galvanovskis leads the U16 team for the third year in a row – in 2019, 13th place in the European Championship, last year the official tournament was canceled. He has previously led the U20 national team in two European championships, as well as been the assistant head coach of the national team.

PREPARATION. U16 national team candidates have been training since the winter, but the team has been preparing for the Challenger tournament for more than a month. Allowing a wide range of basketball players to participate, he won (74:68) and lost (67:91) in test matches with Estonian cadets. after that he was hardened in matches with the “University of Latvia”, but the Lithuanian U16 national team has just been won (54:53).

MOOD. Head coach Agris Galvanovskis: “The team composition is even by positions, we have trained a lot and seriously, but we will get a real idea of ​​the team’s strength only in Sofia, meeting with peers. Winning the Lithuanian team is always honorable, but it would not be right to draw categorical conclusions after one game. We go to fight in every game. ”

FIBA U16 Challenger, B grupa

Latvian U16 national team