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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 will need to be won at the Olympic qualifying tournament on May 26-30 in Graz, Austria.
Although one of the best representatives of the country’s basketball trio, M. Užupis, has not yet recovered from a serious knee injury, he is healing faster than expected and can now shoot to the basket, so it was decided add this basketball player. to the list of candidates.
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 live a little in 3 × 3 basketball. 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 hours, it will be productive work, we will test men, ”said D. Novickas about 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, training plans) 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 Denmark, the trio will be our priority until June, “said M. 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 that opportunity ”Said M. Špokas on 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 how it looks in stressful situations, how people coexist, what chemistry is. It’s not” five out of five “basketball because there you can choose between twelve people you interact with and don’t Here, the team is made up of four people, all of them family members, so psychology is also very important ”, said D. Novickas about the nature of the camp.
LIST OF SELECTED CANDIDATES:
Ignas Vaitkus, Žygimantas Skučas, Vytautas Šulskis, Gintautas Matulis, Darius Tarvydas, Aurimas Urbonas, Aurelijus Pukelis, Šarūnas Vingelis, Paulius Beliavičius, Marijus Užupis, Šarūnas Beniukašius and Pauliskašimius.
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