No Losses on Eve Of Winter Vacations

Ukraine’s national men’s and women’s teams played last Wednesday this year’s last qualification matches of the 2001 basketball championship of Europe.

Before the match, the women’s team had completed the first leg of competitions. After overpowering the teams of Croatia and Turkey in the previous matches (of which The Day has already written), our girls had to test their strength in the last game with the national team of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavs were considered the most dangerous rivals in the whole quartet. The beginning of the match only confirmed this suggestion. The guests had been leading until the twelfth minute. Then coach-cum-player Maryna Tkachenko and her trainees took the initiative and held on to it to the end, scoring 83:66. Viktoria Leleka was recognized as Ukraine’s MVP. The three decisive second-leg matches, two of them to be played away by the Ukrainians, will be held in a year’s time, in November-December 2000.

Our men’s team has also taken the winter break with the best possible result: three wins in three matches. In their concluding match in Roeselare, Belgium, the Ukrainians beat the hosts 64:51.