“Krylya Barsa” won two titles in 3x3 wheelchair basketball

On the first day of the tournament, Krylya Barsa had no competition

The August tournaments can be divided into three parts. At the expense of chronological sequence, I would like to start with the most pleasant part of the three-part confrontation. In Tver, on the first day of the “tikhii!basketball” tournament, the two Kazan teams stood on the highest step of the podium in the “Master” level tournament.

The level of the competing teams was made relatively even by dividing them into three divisions. And only the two strongest structures in wheelchair basketball development dared to field several teams each. In the second-tier “Contender” division, two teams representing St. Petersburg competed — “BasKi” and “BasKi-Junior” — and in the main “Master” division, two Kazan teams entered the fray.

On the first day of the competition, the Kazan teams ended up in the same group, with Ulyanovsk's “Volga” as the third opponent. Krylya Barsa-2 beat Ulyanovsk with some difficulty, overcoming desperate resistance at the start of the game, 12:8. Almost all of the team's points were scored by Vsevolod Salin. The first team had no trouble with either Volga (19:6) or their younger teammates, winning 14:5. And the intensity of the competition shifted to the semifinal matchups. Krylya Barsa again did not face major problems, defeating Tyumen's “Shans” 13:8, while the second team, from the very start of the semifinal, imposed a fight on St. Petersburg's “BasKi-Academy.” From the start, Kazan took the lead 7:4 and then defended their advantage relentlessly. Falling to the floor, as Vsevolod Salin did twice. Shooting from any distance — like Albert Bagamanov. Losing his baseball cap, as happened to Artur Galstyan, and straining opponents with his speed. Galstyan was feeling unwell after the trip to St. Petersburg but recovered and was very useful in Tver.

The final became an intra-team confrontation

At some point, the score was tied at 10:10 after a long-range shot by Sitnikov; St. Petersburg restored parity and had several chances to take the lead. Sitnikov scored another long-range shot, but after the shot clock had expired, so he did not get any points, while Salin scored much closer to the end of the clock but completely legitimately. After Galstyan's shot, the score became 13:11, and St. Petersburg called a timeout, preparing for another chase of the daring opponents. Two points from Salin in two attacks were neutralized by Sitnikov's long-range shot, 15:13, but Galstyan's accurate free throw set the final score at 16:13.

A pleasant sensation that the young “wings” tried to repeat in the final. From the start, they took a 5:1 lead, but the first team players first reduced the gap to two points, and then Vasily Kochetkov's long-range shot tied the game. Galstyan's incredible shot, scoring while falling, again put Krylya Barsa-2 ahead, but he missed the free throw, giving the first team a chance to take the lead for the first time in the match. With half a minute left in the final, the second team had a chance to hope for a draw when, with the score at 8:10, they had the ball. But instead of an accurate long-range shot, the young “wings” attacked from under the basket, inaccurately. The final score of 11:8 in favor of Krylya Barsa placed the first and second Kazan teams on the first and second steps of the podium after the first day of the tournament.

The second day of competition began with a very tough victory for Krylya Barsa over Volga, 11:9. Ulyanovsk even led 9:8 at the end of the match, but the last 100 seconds of the confrontation belonged to the tournament favorites. However, the course of the match was alarming.

Sensation from Krylya Barsa-2

At the same time, the draw for the second day split the teams into different groups. And this time, Krylya Barsa-2 ended up in the same group as BasKi-Academy. Krylya Barsa-2 had a slight 3:2 lead at the start of the match, but St. Petersburg then steamrolled to a final victory of 15:8.

Tyumen pleased with the kind of resistance that the young Kazan team could not offer St. Petersburg. “Shans” led by a double-digit margin of 8:4 during the match, slightly lost control at the end, 10:10, but had a chance to win. An inaccurate shot with the score at 11:12 let them down, after which St. Petersburg brought the game to a 14:13 victory.

Krylya Barsa logically defeated the team “7 Vetrov” from Dimitrovgrad 22:4, and then waited for their semifinal opponent. In the worst case for us, it could have been “Shans," which looked good against St. Petersburg. In the best case, the second team, Krylya Barsa. The case turned out to be of the best kind. Krylya Barsa-2 earned their place in the semifinal. Moreover, they imposed a fight on the more experienced opponents, 10:4, with 3 minutes left in the game. And in this confrontation, they managed to win 13:8, reaching the final against BasKi-Academy.

Kazan's first team became champions thanks to the ranking

A friendly match, which featured Andrei Kirilenko and Sergei Monia among others, separated the group stage matches from the finals. In the match for 3rd place, Krylya Barsa, angry at themselves for losing the semifinal, left no stone unturned against Ulyanovsk's Volga. The Volga team fell under a hot hand, and in this context, it was hot for Kochetkov, Viktor Kaynov, Vladimir Kuchin, and Vitaly Simonov. 17:8 and third place after the second day.

In the final, Krylya Barsa-2 imposed a fight on BasKi-Academy, losing 11:13. Salin even had a chance for a long-range shot, but the position was too difficult and the St. Petersburg defender's marking too tight.

As a result, a unique situation arose for determining the winner and prize-winners of the tournament. Krylya Barsa had four points (1st and 3rd place over two days), BasKi-Academy had four (3rd and 1st place), and Krylya Barsa-2 had four (2nd place both times). It occurred to me that the organizers' main mistake was not scheduling a “friendship match” at the end of the tournament. Then some would have counted, others would have played, spectators would have watched and placed bets. Who would win in the end? Who would get the main prize? Who would toss the coach up in “tikhii!basketball”?

Before Tver, the “wings” won in St. Petersburg

The last sentence is a joke; in wheelchair basketball, it is not customary to toss coaches. Otherwise, Sergey Chistov would have flown, since Krylya Barsa were named the winners of the tournament, and based on the results, Kazan's first team and BasKi-Academy achieved absolutely equal indicators not only in points but also in total points scored, goal difference, etc. The ranking came into play, and according to it, Krylya Barsa were named champions. The vice-champions were BasKi-Academy, and bronze medals went to Krylya Barsa-2, whose leader Vsevolod Salin was named the tournament's best player.

It should be noted that before the tournament in Tver, Kazan had to make two flights from St. Petersburg home and then from Kazan to Tver. All within the same week. An option was considered to go to Tver directly from St. Petersburg, but the basketball players begged the coaching staff to allow them to be home between tournaments, because last year there was a case where they went to a tournament straight from training camp, which was very difficult psychologically. This time they were psychologically unloaded but received a physical load, which may have affected the freshness of the players of both Kazan teams. But the trip to St. Petersburg to participate in a friendly tournament and, most importantly, the victory in it, may have been the additional contribution to the victory that ultimately played into the ranking of the Kazan team. After all, the level of the St. Petersburg tournament was very high; all the strongest teams gathered there, and Krylya Barsa-2 took only fifth place there, which was perceived as a failure. And they had a desire to rehabilitate themselves, which could have served as additional motivation before the competition in Tver.

As for the winners of everything — Krylya Barsa — the coaching staff took newcomer Marcel Shigapov as the fourth player to St. Petersburg, and he immediately joined the championship squad. So to speak, everything started going his way: joining the team, getting married, and immediately winning a tournament, as he perfectly fit with his disability score into the regulations. In Tver, he was replaced by veteran Valery Simonov, but the championship trio K — Kaynov, Kuchin, and Kochetkov — has looked unchanged for several years.

Kochetkov commented on the victory in St. Petersburg, saying that “participation in the tournament was more related to preparation for the start in the League of Strong People or 'tikhii!basketball.' We were testing combinations worked out in training, remembering the nuances of 3x3 play. We considered defensive elements against BasKi-Academy (looking ahead, the teams never met in Tver over the two days). On one hand, St. Petersburg fields players from the 5x5 starting lineup in 3x3, but we have more space on the court; we can break the opponent's defense without giving them a chance to help each other. If we won, we played well. We tested the newcomer Marcel Shigapov.”

The team's head coach, Sergey Chistov, explained: “We decided to give the newcomer a chance, considering that the total disability score on the court should not exceed 8.5. And Marcel fits to come on as a substitute without breaking the rules. Regarding the roster, I note that we continue to add newcomers. Now a SMO participant, a former boxer, has joined us, burning with desire to try himself in wheelchair basketball. He needs to have surgery to start training fully, but he has already met the guys and the game. Importantly, he found us himself, as usually newcomers learn about our team from Alexander Ivanov, who, thanks to his sociability, acts as an unofficial scout.”