POLAND – Report about 2019 World Deaf Basketball Championships for Men and Women.
The World Deaf Basketball Championships, which has been conducted for the fifth time, took place from 27 June until 6 July 2019 in Lublin, Poland. After invitation sent out 15 men teams and 10 women teams were registered. The draws for men and women were held on 17 April 2019 in Lublin, Poland where the final site inspection was be held also there. The modus for men was 4 groups each 4 teams and for women 2 groups each 5 teams. Regrettably Kenya (men and women teams) have withdrawn later.
All of the 75 matches in nine competition days with a rest day were held at two official venues, the „Globus Arena“ with a seating capacity of over 4.000 spectators and „Mosir Sports Hall“ with a seating capacity of over 1.000 spectators in Lublin, Poland.
Only on average 3 kilometers located from two official hotels where all teams stay. The WDBC was organised successfully by International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD), Deaf International Basketball Federation (DIBF), Poland Deaf Sports Association (PDSA) and Poland Basketball Association (PZKosz).
The tournament was implemented effectively that everything was worked out well smoothly. Jürgen Endress, Yaakov Keren (both Technical Directors), Jaroslaw Janiec (OC CEO), Marek Lembrych (FIBA Representative) and Mariusz Nawrocki (PZKosz Chief Referee) were efficient and powerful coordinators of the tournament, along with great support of deaf and hearing volunteers. The DIBF helped excellent for the referee assignments, the referees consist of two different associations (DIBF and PZKosz).
Men tournament
United States beats WC defender Lithuania in the fast playing match to the 2019 World Deaf Basketball Championship title in a clear 105-77 victory in Saturday’s Final to become the first time ever the world champions. Noah Valencia who won the MVP title and Michael Lizarraga combined to hit 33 and 21 points respectively to lead the Americans in scoring. Three other US players scored in double figures, including Center Steve Valencia-Biskupiak, who had 10 points and 12 rebounds. The Lithuanian player Gediminas Zukas scored 26 points and 8 assists, Karolis Birieta 22 points and 9 rebounds in the final match.
USA has not won the world champion title in history since 2002 founded World Championships, now the first title. Lithuania after three time in a row now the Vice Champion. In the bronze match Ukraine team won against Russia with 73-64.
Women tournament
In the final Greece won in 51-42 against Lithuania through strong performance by Stefania Patera with 15 points who won also the MVP title and two players (Chrysanthi Chaina and Alexandra Kotsiafti, both 10 points) in double figures. Lithuania, silver medal in four times, run with a 10:0 points between 3rd and 4th quarters and lost the nerves at the end. Ramune Eskertaite with 12 points and Justina Burbaite-Maciuniene with 12 points scored for LTU.
The Greece has now the triple, after 2016 European Champion, 2017 Deaflympics Gold winner and now in first time the World Champion. In the bronze match United States team secured the bronze medal against Turkey in 76-72.
Final results of Men and Women: Final Results (PDF)
Medal and award ceremonies
Immediately after the men‘s final match, there was the award, medal and closing ceremonies. All first three ranked teams in the men and women were given gold, silver and bronze medals and big trophies.
2019 World Champion Men: USA
2019 World Champion Women: Greece
MVP
Men: Noah VALENCIA (USA)
Women: Stefania PATERA (GRE)
Top Scorer
Men: Dmitry GUSEV (RUS) 159 Pts.
Women: Hannah NEILD (USA) 164 Pts.
Best Five
Men:
Dmitry GUSEV (RUS)
Gediminas ZUKAS (LTU)
Andrii RAUS (UKR)
Karolis BIRIETA (LTU)
Michael LIZARRAGA (USA)
Women:
Chrysanthi CHAINA (GRE)
Ecrin KÖSE (TUR)
Ramune ESKERTAITE (LTU)
Hannah NEILD (USA)
Nukeitra HAYES (USA)
Fair Play
Men: Japan
Women: Poland
Other
All participating countries were satisfied with the hotel and the full board was delicious, the organization for transportation excellent. The works of deaf and hearing volunteers were impressive, they worked diligently and tirelessly in every day. Especially the media group of live streaming was awesome, daily all games and all ceremonies were shown in live streaming in the internet (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJ8KYZulo5_1piqhlDCVpQ/videos and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS-99bBZlKRhS6MTEHRjnw/videos).
The audiogram controls has taken place without problem and the doping controls smoothly, unfortunately not as agreed with the appointed numbers because of financial reasons. This also applies to the official website has been worked to the minimum limit.
Conclusion
The implementation of the 2019 World Championships was positive and successful for everyone. The Organising Committee (Poland Deaf Sports Association) cooperated with ICSD and DIBF well. Through the good support of the governments, strong large experienced leading both technical directors with SLO‘s, professional referees and the hard-working organising committee with volunteers, the 2019 WDBC has risen to high standards. For many the WC event was the best ever. ICSD and DIBF wish to express a big „thank you“ to PDSA host organisers of 2019 World Championships for its superb hard work with less than 10 months to organise.
More about all results, photos, videos, etc. see under the official websites: www.2019wdbc.pl or under facebook page:
www.facebook.com/2019-World-Deaf-Basketball-Championships-276607216365661
Reporting from Lublin, Poland:
Jürgen Endress,
DIBF Secretary General
Download:
• Full Report with Photos (PDF)
• Full Results (PDF)
• Men: Full Scoresheets (Preliminary Rounds) (PDF)
• Men: Full Scoresheets (Final Rounds) (PDF)
• Men: Full Stats (PDF)
• Women: Full Scoresheets (Preliminary Rounds) (PDF)
• Women: Full Scoresheets (Final Rounds) (PDF)
• Women: Full Stats (PDF)
