The balls bounced through 5 days, from Saturday to Wednesday, on the 3X3 basketball courts set up in front of the Main Building of UD. A total of 40 - 16 women’s and 24 men’s - teams arrived to the championship, representing 35 universities in 17 European countries, including Hungary that was represented by 8 teams, with the women’s and men’s teams of UD among them.
UD’s women’s team (Virág Baczuk, Rebeka Kovács, and Dóra Mezei) completed the qualification round, and marched to the quarter final, where the players of Orsolya Vasas were defeated by the title holder, and the winner of the championship, the team of the Ukrainian Vasyl Stefanyk University. The UD team could still compete for the 5th-8th places. First they defeated the team of the Zagreb University by 3 points, than lost against the Madrid-based Polytechnic University (17-18). The UD team also received the fair play prize.
The best player of the team, Dóra Mezei believes that they played really well.
- In the beginning we thought we did not have much chance. Yet, we were able to finish on the 6th place, which is a shiny success for us, and we are very proud of it. We played excellent matches in a good atmosphere. This is the starting point of our further development – evaluated the team’s performance the UD athlete.
The men’s team of UD (Soma Balázsi, Mátyás Gáspár, Bence Neuwirth, and Gergő Várbíró) finished the game as the best Hungarian men’s team. The team successfully completed the group round, but in the quarter final they were defeated by the title holder (and the winner of the championship) Lithuanian Vytautas Magnus University by two points in a dynamic and exciting match. The team could still compete for the place, but they were defeated by the Dubrovnik University team (18-13).
Mátyás Gáspár believes that the 3x3 university EC is a prestigious event, and a great opportunity to gain experience.
- We have hardly any opportunities to play against such strong teams, and I think we have to make the most out of these occasions. All in all, with some luck and more concentration we could have made into the top 8, instead of finishing on the 12th place. However, we are not disappointed – said Mr. Gáspár after the last match was over.
Among women, the EC gold medal went to the winner of last year’s EUG, the team of the Ukrainian Vasyl Stefanyk University, following their victory over the Romanian Pitesti in a heavy fight (16-19). Among men, the title holder team of the Vytautas Magnus University won the gold medal after defeating the team of the Ukrainian Sumy State in the final (21-10).
The competition was also a qualification event for the A 3X3 FISU WC, to be held this autumn. The winning women’s and men’s teams automatically have the right now to enter the competition.
At the closing ceremony, which was held on Wednesday evening, Ilan Kowalsky, representative of the European University Sports Association (EUSA) delivered a memorial plaquette to Kata Varga event coordinator and vice-rector Károly Pető for their great work.
Following the tradition, the EUSA flag was delivered by László Balogh, head of the organizing committee to the representative of Ljubljana University, where the next 3X3 EC will take place.
The EC in Debrecen was the official test competition before next year’s EUG, which will be jointly organized by the University of Miskolc and the University of Debrecen. According to participants and EUSA representatives, the organizing team in Debrecen did a great job, and the location was excellent.
Women:
1st place winner: Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (UKR)
2nd place winner: University of Pitesti (ROU)
3rd place winner: University of Lyon (FRA)
Men:
1st place winner: Vytautas Magnus University (LIT)
2nd place winner: Sumy State University (UKR)
3rd place winner: University of Valencia (ESP)
Fair Play:
Women: University of Debrecen
Men: University of Paris 8 - Vincennes - Saint-Denis
Throwing competition:
Women: Paula Corrochano (Polytechnic University of Madrid)
Men: Titas Janusevicius (Vytautas Magnus University)
Highest number of points:
Women: Clarisse Legrand (University of Lyon)
Men: Segev Grylak (Ruppin College)
Bagging competition:
László Komma (Corvinus University)
MVP:
Women: Veronica Kosmach (Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University)
Men: Titas Janusevicius (Vytautas Magnus University)
Team of the championship:
Women: Clarisse Legrand (Lyon), Ioana Andreea Ghizila (Pitesti), Veronika Kosmach (Vasyl Stefanik)
Men: Titas Janusevicius (Vytautas), Illia Kabatsiura (Sumy State), Pablo Luengo Mateo (Valencia)
Press Centre - PKZs
