Basketball
Host Austria was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 3×3 basketball world championships on Vienna’s Rathausplatz on Saturday evening in both the women’s and men’s categories. The men sniffed at a sensation against defending champion Serbia for a long time before they had to admit defeat 18:21. The women lost 17:21 to Favorit USA.
Filip Krämer and Co. had previously thrown a higher rated opponent out of the competition with 22:18 in the play-in duel with Vice European Champion Lithuania. In the quarter-finals, a perfect start was achieved with a 2:0, even at 11:8 the underdog was still in the front. After equalizing to 14:14, a real thriller developed in which the Serbs finally got the upper hand, also due to better foul management.
“We knew we were the underdogs and they had good shooters. Nevertheless, it was a great game, we started off strong and did what we set out to do,” summed up Krämer. He could live with the defeat because of the not necessarily expected entry into the quarterfinals. “We are top eight in the world, a lot will happen in the future. Serbia has a tough team, but we’ll have them soon,” said Kramer, looking optimistically to the future.
The qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris should succeed and a good result should be achieved there. “That’s the big goal,” emphasized Austria’s men’s coach Milan Isakov. Champions are not always those who wear the gold medal, but those who surpass themselves. “I’m super proud of the boys,” said the Serb after a game against “the best team of all time”.
Women keep up well with USA
For Austria’s women, a sensation was not so close, the team, which made it into the quarter-finals as group winners, was always behind against the Americans. There would have been a chance to equalize in the finish, but it was missed. “There’s no reason to let our heads hang, we played very well and were able to keep up until the end,” summed up Sigrid Kroizar. In the end, “little mistakes”, i.e. “little things” would have made the difference.
Praise for organizers
The organizers received a lot of praise from many quarters. The atmosphere in the stadium was always very good. “I’ve been to a World Cup six times, this is the best I’ve ever experienced,” said Isakov. And Krämer added: “The atmosphere was amazing.” It’s a shame for the fans that they can’t keep their fingers crossed for the home teams on Sunday. For men, Serbia meets Latvia and Brazil meets the USA. The women’s duels are USA vs. China and France vs. Australia.