European Basketball Championship begins in Hungary in 50 days

The Hungarian national team will play team matches in full house on the Women’s European Basketball Championships beginning on June 11, which will be organized by Hungary and Romania.

Ivan Bodrogvary, leader of the organizing committee of the European Championship said at his press conference on Thursday: tickets are bough well, the Swedes have already ordered 500, the Slovaks hundreds of them, so the 2500-people Sopron hall will be full.

Tamas Gall, one of the assistant coaches of the Hungarian national team said the team would begin the joint preparations for the EC in Miskolc on May 4, Stefan Svitek national coach would join this time. As has been said, the national team is expected to reach the semi-final, the top 12. To do this, the team must be in the top three of the group.

According to the trainer, the Hungarian team wanted to fight with the Lithuanians and the Swedes for the second place and if they would advance, more matches win at the semi-final in Gyor. Stefan Svitek appointed 17 people, whose member is Zsofia Fegyverneky who has a six-week-old baby and started to train after birth. Tamas Gall added the team was very unified and everyone tried to subordinate everything for the coming-out well. Even naturalized Americans transferred their studies to be there in the training camps.

As for preparation, Stefan Svitek’s team, after the joint exercises in Miskolc and Sopron, will play two matches with Italy on May 15 and 16, than they will participate in a four-tournament between May 29-31 in Podgorica, where they will play with, besides the host Montenegrins, Bosnia and Croatia. And then, the team will have a match in Istanbul, Turkey on June 5 and 6.

Anna Vajda, national team player said she thought it is a huge thing to participate in a national-hosted EC. “I hope the team will also prove that it was worth working together and could express our gratitude in deeds.” She mentioned that the presence of Timea Beres Ivkovics, who will be team leader of the EC, could help them a lot, and she could popularize basketball as the ambassador of FIBA in Hungary.

Ferenc Szalay, president of the National Association of Hungarian Basketball Players said there was a very intelligent, cohesive community in the national team, in which each player received the same treatment and incentive. He told the association had to only pay the cost of travel and stay in the case of Alexandria Quigley, but they didn’t have to pay for her club.

The continent tournament starts in Sopron, Szombathely, Nagyvarad/Oradea and Temesvar/Timisoara on June 11. To achieve the semi-final, the Hungarians have to be among the top 3 in the group. The opponents are the Lithuanians, the Slovaks, the Swedes and the defending champion Spanish in Group D. The matches will be in Sopron.

Semi-finals will be organized in Gyor and Debrecen, the qualification matches will be in Syma hall, Budapest.

based on the article of MTI
translated by BA

Photos: MTI

Source: http://www.mti.hu