MINSK, 29 October (BelTA) – Belarus won silver at the FIBA U15 Women's Skills Challenge 2021, BelTA has learned.
Belarus lost 130-111 to Israel in the final. The Belarusian team featured Anastasiya Ausiyevich, Maryia Liaskouskaya, Dziyana Lindzerava, Yana Barysevich and Aliaksandra Palubok in the final match. The team also comprised Kseniya Sakalskaya, Yelizaveta Hryshkevich, Marta Suprun and Sofya Kameneva.
China claimed bronze.
The U15 Skills Challenge were introduced by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) as a development tool for national federations at a time when no other FIBA international competitions were able to take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year the tournament consisted of two stages – regional competitions and the finals. In May the qualifying competitions saw 106 teams from 55 national federations. In October, following the qualifying round, 32 teams of boys and girls, including Belarusians, entered the final competition. Unfortunately, the Belarusian boys did not succeed in the group stage. On the way to the final match, the Belarusian girls defeated the teams of Cameroon, Suriname, Iran, Lithuania and Poland. They lost only to Australia and Israel.
The Skills Challenge system is simple: each team passes the regional qualifiers, after which the video footage is sent to FIBA to determine the quality and speed of the test. Penalty points are awarded for violations and inaccuracies, and the team with the least points is the winner.
