[ad_1]
Photo: FIBA Champions League
Photo FIBA Champions League
Klaipėda “Neptūnas” became the first Lithuanian club team to travel abroad to compete against the coronavirus this season.
Klaipeda Neptune / Schedule
The port city team from Sunday September 20 to today September 25 was in the Bulgarian city of Botevgrade, where they fought for a place in the Main Event of the FIBA Champions League.
In the semi-finals, the team led by Tomas Gaidamavičius defeated the London Lions 77:73, but in the final 59:69 they recognized the advantage of Minsk Cmoki and did not enter the main tournament.
The BasketNews.lt website spoke with Dainius Vaitelis, Neptūnas sports director, about the Klaipėda residents’ travel abroad in the context of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Even before leaving Lithuania, 72 hours before the flight, all Neptune members had to be tested for coronavirus and could only travel to the qualifying tournament after receiving negative results. All tests showed negative responses.
Neptune traveled to Bulgaria from Vilnius via Frankfurt, and during the first flight, many team members had to sit next to other people on the plane. Only when flying from Frankfurt was the plane rough, allowing team members to keep a greater distance between people.
As soon as they landed in Bulgaria, all team members had to submit documents with negative results for coronavirus. After doing so and measuring the basketball players’ temperature, they were allowed to take a bus to the hotel.
Midfielder Simas Galdikas, who had a rise in body temperature before the trip, did not attend Botevgrad, so the player may have had problems at the checkpoints.
Colones are launched this season
“If it weren’t for the coronavirus, I would have flown,” Dainius Vaitelis noted.
No coronavirus test has been performed on basketball players in Bulgaria.
Photo FIBA Champions League
All teams in the qualifying tournament were required to adhere to self-isolation and were only allowed to leave the hotel during training sessions or matches.
“It wasn’t that someone was breaking the rules, something else, there wasn’t even a place to go, there wasn’t much to walk around the hotel, because the areas were so interesting,” Vaitelis said. – Only hotel, gym, hotel, matches. This is how we spend our days. “
Masks were mandatory in the hotel and basketball players continued to be constantly monitored for body temperature.
The FIBA Champions League had decided that the teams would eat with all the other residents of the hotel, but on the second day it was abandoned, another room was assigned where the teams sat at separate tables.
Additionally, hotel residents were asked to eat with gloves, but this was denied on the second day when team members disinfected their hands.
“Neptune” also faced unusual rules in the match. Although the team members were sitting next to each other on the bus as they drove towards them, they were unable to do so in the arena – the reserve players’ chairs were placed at a great distance from each other.
The teams were replaced by the FIBA Champions League, which even warned him of the foul.
“He was a very responsible person, just pushing the chair a little closer, he immediately nods that it’s not possible,” Vaitelis noted.
The basketball players also sat at a safe distance during the minute of rest, but the five on the field were able to hear Tomas Gaidamavičius’s instructions well, because there were no spectators in the room.
During the teams’ pre-match presentation, the players could not beat each other with their hands. The same situation was repeated after the game: the teams were not allowed to greet each other.
After the victory in the semifinals against the Lions, Tomas Gaidamavičius with the coaching staff reached the middle line, but did not reach the opponent’s coach. He wanted to agree, but one of the team representatives quickly stopped him and reminded him of the FIBA rules.
After the second game, the situation was different. The Neptūnas team congratulated the Minsk Cmoki team on their victory.
Photo FIBA Champions League
“There were absurd things, situations that went beyond logic, but we tried not to pay attention and follow the rules,” Vaitelis summarized.
At noon on Friday, Neptūnas began his journey home and will arrive in Vilnius only at midnight. Without waiting for anything, the team will take a bus to the mobile coronavirus checkpoint and then a trip to Klaipeda.
Since you will only be back in the morning, your team members may already know your after-sleep test results, which should be available by Saturday noon. If they are negative, the team may not do 14 days of self-isolation.
After resting on Saturday and training on Sunday, on Monday Neptūnas will continue the fights in the Lithuanian Basketball League, where they have a victory against Alytus Dzūkija.
This will be the first time since the 2002-2003 season, when the Klaipėda club will play only one match per week.
“The pros are just that there are chances to better prepare for the LKL match,” Vaitelis said. – The downside is that playing in a European tournament is very good for basketball players, they gain experience. Of course, I wouldn’t say that we had done a lot this year, but we would certainly have gained experience. We certainly wanted it, but we failed, it failed. Now that we are preparing for LKL, we will have a lot of time to prepare. “
In the 2003-2004 season, Neptūnas competed in the FIBA European Cup, from 2004 to 2012 in the Baltic Basketball League, and from 2012 to 2020 in the VTB United League, European Cup, Euroleague and FIBA Champions League.
In the last tournament, the team played four years in a row from the 2016-2017 season.
In the decisive battle for the FIBA Champions League, Neptūnas played with 10 basketball players, as not only Galdikas but also Aidas Einikis were unable to help.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Žygimantas Janavičius minimized the lag of the port city team (57:58), but then the Lithuanian club lost the stage 2:11 and stumbled.
Photo FIBA Champions League
“The disappointment is that if we lose by 20 points, then everything is clear, and there really was a chance of winning,” Vaitelis said of the failure in the fight to get into the Champions League. – We didn’t win ourselves, they didn’t play better. It hurts a lot for that. We worked well on defense, such a team did not score 70 points, but we did not attack each other, we did not shoot free, we were afraid to take the initiative by ourselves, the players still have no experience. It lacks a lot.
We are all to blame, there was a chance to win, we saw it ourselves. Those 10 points only appeared at the end, until then there were 5 points and less. Lack of experience was the biggest drawback. “
This season, the only Lithuanian team in Vilnius, Rytas, will play in the FIBA Champions League. Donald Kairis’s troops will have to adapt to the conditions in which Klaipeda’s “Neptune” was the first to test in Lithuania.
[ad_2]
