With ceremonial speeches, competitions, musical performances and, of course, the real spirit of the basketball game, Gulbene opens the season of the “Ramirent” National Basketball League. Raimonds Vējonis, president of the Latvian Basketball Association, honored the players and spectators before the game with a speech: “I am really happy that 21 teams are playing in the Ramirent national league this year as well. Of course, two new teams have arrived. One is from Salaspils, the other is from Sigulda. They are also small, but basketball centers with good infrastructure.”
Gatis Rikveilis, chairman of the board of the basketball club “Gulbenes Buki”, says that the new season promises to be quite interesting, as the teams have become stronger. Also, the opening match is quite special, because it is taking place in Gulbene for the first time. “Basketball is the No. 1 sport in Gulbene. We have also prioritized basketball in Gulbene district at the municipal level. We are working to have those talents. Of course, an offer came from the Latvian Basketball Association, we were very happy to host the opening game directly in Gulbene.”
Jānis Antrops, a member of the Salaspils team, says that this is the debut of the Salaspils team in the second league and that this game promises to be interesting both for the basketball players themselves and for those watching the game from the sidelines. “We have a lot of young players in the team, locals from Salaspils, who are from a sports school, who have a lot to learn. Then we are a couple of more experienced players, we will try to give a lot of advice and help the team so that those young people get used to men’s basketball.”
Ingars Aizpurs, who plays in the “Gulbene buku” team, says that since he was born and raised in Gulbene, his basketball career also took place in this city. It also encourages us to show our best performance as we open this season. “It is very pleasant to be an athlete, the beginning of the season is always exciting. Then we’ll see how we look this year. We want people to see that Gulbene likes basketball, Gulbene loves basketball, we go ahead and create this product here.”
In the first half of the game, the basketball players of Salaspils Sports School took the lead, however, the team “Gulbenes buki” won the opening game of this season with the result 99:80.
Photo: Freepik; illustrative
2023-10-14 20:54:41
#Gulbene #loves #basketball
