Gulbene U16 basketball team – Latvian champion – Gulbene district – Dzirkstele.lv

The U16 basketball team of Gulbene district children’s and youth sports school is the champion of Latvia. The team won the Latvian youth basketball league.

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On Sunday, April 21, in Valmiera and Ogre, the winners of the final tournaments of the Latvian Youth Basketball League “PRIME” in the U16 and U13 groups were determined. The BJSS team of Gulbene region won the boys’ U16 group tournament.

Team coach Oskars Vīksna informs that after a successful regular season in the Super League, the team went to the final in Valmiera. In the quarter-finals Gulbene BJSS defeated “BS Ogre” with the result 84:71, in the semi-final they beat “Mārupes NSS” with the result 81:72. In a game worthy of the final, Gulbene BJSS defeated “BJSS Rīga/DSN” with the result 92:76. Ralfs Aleksandrovs was recognized as the most valuable player of the final tournament, while Ret Eduards Weinberg entered the “Five Stars”.

The members of the champion team are: Matīss Lācis, Niklāvs Veselovs, Haralds Romanovskis, Raivo Krastiņš, Markus Aleksandrovs, Edgars Bērzins, Niks Kuzmičs, Raitis Puškis, Alens Beliaevs, Markus Rauza, Mick Alberts Gudovskis, Kristers Vanags. Physical fitness trainer – Ingolfs Lusis.

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O. Viksna tells the newspaper that he has been training these guys for the seventh year. “It’s common, a lot of experience learned and skills developed, the team has come together. In serious games, which are the Latvian finals, where the best teams are, it is already a battle of characters who are physically and emotionally stronger, who are psychologically able to withstand the tension. We were, and we prepared accordingly. In important, similar games, we were able not to break, but to break the opponent. That’s how we managed to win, because the teams were very similar, everything was decided somewhere by luck, somewhere by confidence, somewhere by precision, nuances, as it is in sports. In basketball, the competition in Latvia is huge and there are ambitions on all sides. Winning in this sport in Latvia is a difficult task. These guys are two-time champions, because they also won in 2022 in the U14 group. Of course, there have been some changes in the team, but the core of the team is the same. The team mainly consists of boys from Gulbene, two from Jēkabpils and one from Riga,” says O. Vīksna.

He describes his basketball players as technically and mentally well prepared, those who do not break in difficult moments. “The guys, together with their support – parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances – did not break down, they were able to get up after difficulties, and once we were on the wave, we were unstoppable. We were physically and psychologically strong,” emphasizes the coach about the victory in the league.