Report.az
The Azerbaijani U-18 basketball team's place among Europe's top 12 teams is a success.
This was stated by Turqay Zeytingöz, sports director of the Azerbaijan Basketball Federation, in an interview with "Report".
He said that they competed with the youngest team in the European Championship:
"For the first time, our U-18 girls' team competed in Division B. We could not be one of the top two teams in the group and reach the 'top 8'. But overall, I consider it a success that we finished the competition with four victories and were among the top 12 teams in Europe. This is a result that gives us hope for the future. I should also note that we competed with the youngest team in the competition. In addition to basketball players born in 2007-2008, we also gave a chance to two players born in 2009 and 2010, and one player born in 2011. This is an important sign for the future. I congratulate the entire coaching staff and athletes, especially Evren Alkaya. I think that good days await us in the future."
The official also touched upon the results of the U-16 European Championship:
"Unfortunately, we could not get the desired result from the U-16 boys' basketball team. We knew even before the competition that there were some problems with this generation and that we were experiencing difficulties in terms of rotation. The team consists of basketball players born in 2010. Of course, we would have liked to achieve a better result. We lost to Andorra in the group, a team we had never watched play, and finished fifth with 4 wins. But I think that this competition was an important experience especially for basketball players born in 2010, and that we will see a stronger and more ambitious U-16 in the next tournament. We want to develop 6 more age groups. I hope that each coming generation will be better than the previous one. I believe that the U-16 will achieve more successful results in the coming years."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani U-16 boys' basketball team finished the European Championship Division C in 5th place. The U-18 girls' team was 12th in Division B.
