TEHRAN (FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Junior Men): The mood in the mandatory Technical meeting on the eve of the 20th edition of the FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Junior Men on Wednesday was one of gloom and sadness.
For, one of the teams that formed a part of the original 16-team fray would not be participating. And not for any routine reasons of last minute withdrawal, but due to a blow from the Providence.
The plane which carried the Kyrgyzstan delegation to the championship crashed a couple of minutes after it took off from Bishket killing most of their players.
Kyrgyzstan obviously can not participate in the championship.
“This is really a disastrous incident about a member of the FIBA Asia family,” said FIBA Asia Deputy Secretary General Hagop Khajirian who chaired the Technical Meeting, when calling upon those assembled for a minute’s silence in memory of those killed.
The meeting also passed a resolution to convey the condolence message on behalf of all the teams participating in the championship.
“It’s a real sad thing,” regretted India coach Aleksandar Bucan.
“A plane crash is bad enough. Along with it the lives of so many young sportsmen has been taken away,” the Serbian went on.
“Kyrgyz basketball was so looking forward to this U18 team to take them to the next level,” said Nikolay Mikhalchuk, the General Manager of the Kazakhstan team, also a former Soviet Union republic.
“Their (Kyrgyz) federation had worked really hard at getting things going. And now this,” he added.
As a result of Kyrgyzstan’s absence, Group D in the preliminary round will feature only three teams – Iran, Syria and Malaysia.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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