NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh national female basketball team took the silver medal May 26 at the Asia Cup 3×3 finale. In the final game, the Kazakh national team lost to the Australian national team 20:9, according to Olympic.kz.
Photo credit: Khabar 24.
The international basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup took place May 22 to May 26 in Changsha, China.
Kazakh player Oksana Ivanova was injured while playing the Mongolian team and no replacements were allowed, but the Kazakh national team was still able to win its quarterfinal match against Thailand (21:19) and the semi-final against the Japanese national team (17:14), reported Prosport.kz.
With three games happening on the same day, by the time of the final game, the Kazakh team was at a disadvantage, as the same three players had to play each time. What added to the pressure is that in the past two FIBA Asia Cups, the Australian national team took bronze and gold. So as Prosport.kz reports, they were regarded as the tournament’s favourites. Thus, in the tournament’s final game, Australia took home gold, and Kazakhstan received silver, which was the first ever prize that the Kazakh women’s national basketball team took in the Asia Cup.
The Kazakh men’s national basketball team placed fourth after losing to China. After defeating the Qatari team in the quarter-final (21:17), the Kazakh men’s national basketball team lost first to Mongolia (21:13) for the right to advance to the final game and then to China (11:14) in the fight for the third place.
The Kazakh women’s national basketball team included Nadezhda Kondrakova (who was included in the tournament’s symbolic team of the best players), Zalina Kurazova, Tamara Yagodkina and Oksana Ivanova, all from Nur-Sultan’s Astana Tigers team. The Kazakh men’s national basketball team members were Vladimir Kurochkin (Aktau’s Caspi team), Ruslan Aitkali (Nur-Sultan’s Astana team), Denis Degtyarev and Aidarkhan Toktarov (both from Kokshetau’s Sinegorye team).
