Armenian basketball team takes 6th place

On July 28 – August 7 the European Youth Basketball Championships were held in Strumnitsa, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The Armenian national team took part in the competition. In order to strengthen its team’s position, the Armenian Basketball Association decided to invite Russian players to the team.

It turned out that there are a lot of good basketball players in Russia with Armenian roots. So the president of the Armenian Basketball Association, Grachya Rostomyan, met with Kamo Pogosyan, chief coach of the Urartu youth sports club, and the well-experienced coach Sergey Zozulin to discuss the strategy the Armenian national team should adopt to perform adequately during the championships.

Sergey Zozulin, having been appointed the Armenian national team’s coach, hired 36 basketball players of Armenian origin but living in Moscow and other Russian cities, in order to prepare them for the competition. He had to select the 12 best players to take part in the European championships.

As a result, the Armenian national team that appeared at the European Youth Championships seemed like a ‘dark horse’ to the audience. The administration of the Armenian basketball association at first didn’t believe that the team would manage to achieve any serious success, but in fact the team’s game was a good one.
The team came in sixth place in the competition and proved that the adopted strategy was right. The most important thing now is to preserve this team and train one that will someday replace it, the administration of the Armenian Basketball Association believes.

Sergey Mkrtchyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK