BLR – ‘It’s all good’

OSTRAVA (2010 FIBA World Championship for Women) – When it comes to women’s basketball in Belarus, the story is worth telling again, and again, and again.

It never gets old.

How many times are we going to hear about the ‘first time for this, first time for that’ when it comes to their national team?

The United States, Australia and Russia are the big three in the game and each is unbeaten at the FIBA World Championship for Women.

But this tournament means just as much, if not more, to those sides cutting their teeth in one of the most important events in the game.

One of those teams is Belarus, who finished second in Group A behind Australia after beating China and Canada.

They had never appeared in the Final Round of a EuroBasket Women until 2007.
 
They took Chieti by storm and claimed a bronze medal and followed that up one year later by qualifying for the Olympics and finishing sixth in Beijing.
 
Last year was a huge success, too, a fourth-place finish at the EuroBasket in Latvia that earned Anatoli Buyalski's team a trip to the Czech Republic.
 
Remember the latter stages of that tournament?
 
Point guard Natallia Marchanka had a broken nose but never thought about coming out of any game.
 
She wore a facemask and led Belarus past Slovakia to qualify for the World Championship.

The Belarus players are in their element in Ostrava.

They seem to be playing pressure-free.

They look happy, and they look good.

They're pioneers, wearing Tuta basketball dresses on the court.

Yelena Leuchanka, 27, who has had to overcome serious injuries to both knees to continue playing the game she loves, competed in the WNBA Finals with the Atlanta Dream but hopped on a plane almost immediately after that series and flew to Europe to join up with her team just a couple of days before the start of this World Championship.

She wouldn't have missed travelling to the Czech Republic for anything.

After she’d grabbed 16 rebounds in her team’s 61-49 win over Canada, Leuchanka was asked her how she was holding up.

She sighed, smiled and said in a remarkable,  “Yo, I can speak English American style” accent: “It’s all good.”

Leuchanka isn’t the only player that showed up right before the start.

Several teams have players on their rosters that competed in the WNBA Finals.

“I don't feel as well as I want to feel," Leuchanka said.

"Other players came with me at the same time, though.

“We're all professional athletes.

“We play at the highest level. I'm just trying to do whatever I can.

"For us, Belarus, it's the first time (in the World Championship). We're writing history books.” 

Marchanka, 31, was singing from the same hymn sheet after the win over Canada.
 
Isn’t she the least bit tempted at the end of the season to take the summer off and go to the beach and just relax instead of showing up for national team duty?

"We're making Belorussian basketball history day in and day out and are very proud of that,” Marchanka said.
 
"Our names will be there forever. We're the first-timers. We always like to see each other.
 
“It's always good to see each other. It's just a great experience for all of us.

“No one wants to stay home and rest and watch us on TV.
 
“No, everyone wants to be a part of it."

You can see all of Belarus' games in the Eighth-Final Round live on FIBATV.com.
 
FIBA