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Photo: FIBA.com
Photo FIBA.com
The Lithuanian 3×3 basketball team’s journey to the Tokyo Olympics begins on Sunday. Thirteen of the best representatives of the sport come together for a six-day camp in Anykščiai.
Although the final destination is Tokyo, the ticket to Japan must be won in the Olympic qualifiers on May 26-30 in Graz, Austria.
The 40 teams that will participate in the Olympic selection will be divided into two groups and the top 3 teams from each sub-group will receive a ticket to the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.
List of candidates for the national team:
Ignas vaitkus
Žygimantas Skučas
Vytautas Šulskis
Gintautas Matulis
Darius tarvydas
Aurimas Urbonas
Aurelijus Pukelis
Šarūnas Vingelis
Paulius Beliavičius
Marijus Užupis
Šarūnas Beniušis
Sigismund Shimonis
Paulius Semema
Marijus Užupis, one of the best three-team basketball players in the country, has not yet recovered from a serious knee injury, but is recovering faster than expected and can now be thrown to the basket, so it was decided to add this basketball. player to the candidate list.
The team is led by Dainius Novickas, and alongside him, the head of Utena Juventus also works at the coaches’ headquarters. the coach Žydrūnas Urbonas and several other representatives of the Utena team.
“We will try to get together in 3×3 basketball. The conditions are perfect, trio basketball such a camp has yet to see. Everyone is friends, so the mood will be great. Sports and gyms both run 24 hours; it will be work productive, we will test the men, ”Novickas said of the conditions created in Anykščiai.
Mindaugas Špokas, general secretary of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF), also shared his thoughts on the start of the trio’s preparation for the Olympic team.
“The plan is simple: prepare for the Olympic Games. It is not easy to combine schedules and the desire is to have a quality product. All the players have checked their health, we want to have the data and give them supplements based on the physical condition of the Players. We do the same in the men’s team, because there is not a completely healthy person. Through these camps we try to improve the physical condition of everyone.
All players are also insured in club basketball, which was not the case before. All that focus – medicine, care, plans made by the coaches – is at the level of the men’s national team. We are all in the same boat, so we want to have both teams in the Olympics at the end point. After Monday’s game with the Danish trio, it will be our priority until June, “said Špokas.
The LKF Secretary General also stated that organizing such camps and preparing prepared plans during the season is not easy, especially given the current pandemic situation. Still, every basketball organization in the country is working together and trying to help the trio achieve their goals.
“We are adapting to the situation because there is a desire to find a compromise. We will have an Olympic team at the end of May, we are talking with our leagues, but we cannot say what it will be like in May. The national interest is above the clubs, that is why we have to speak out so that the best players can represent the national teams. For the first time in the history of the Olympic movement, there will be a trio basketball competition and we have the opportunity to get there. We will try to catch up and not miss this opportunity ”Said Špokas of emerging challenges.
During the camp, the basketball players of the national team will train twice a day. There will also be training sessions where the best referees will judge. While some of the players are used to playing together by now, a wide variety of team combinations will be tried and tested and the most suitable candidates will be found.
“It just came to our knowledge then. We’ll see what it looks like in stressful situations, how people coexist, what chemistry is. It’s not” five to five “basketball because there you can choose between the twelve team members you interact with and with. those who don’t. Here the team is made up of four people, they are all like members of the family, so psychology is very important. ” – Novick spoke about the nature of the camp.
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