Lithuania in the news
16th August, 2005
Lithuania Under-21 World Basketball Champions
Lithuanian team after winning the Gold.
Photo courtesy ELTA
Last Sunday, August 14, Lithuania won Gold in the Under-21 Basketball World Championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina. In the finals in a hard fought game, Lithuania defeated Greece (65:63). In the quarter-finals Lithuania had defeated Argentina (76:63) and in the semi-finals had defeated Australia (96:73), after which game the Australian trainer Guy Molloy declared that it was simply impossible to win against such a team, the forceful playing of which one can only admire. For Bronze Canada defeated Australia. Early favourites United States and Puerto Rico failed to reach the finals.
This is the first time that any Lithuanian basketball team had won the world championship and this event was greeted with much jubilation in Lithuania. The Lithuanian junior basketball team had earlier won Silver in the World Championship in Salonica, Greece (2003) and the Bronze in the European Junior Championship (2004).

Further information: "Lietuvos Rytas" 16/8/05