POL - Polish break World Record in dribbling - over 30.000 fans on the streets
POLAND (2009 EuroBasket) - Three months before the tournament's tip-off EuroBasket 2009 in Poland has already started breaking records. On Wednesday 17 June, 31,004 young people and celebrities gathered in the seven cities of EuroBasket 2009 - Katowice, Łodz, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw - to break the Guinness Record for the largest ...
POLAND (2009 EuroBasket) - Three months before the tournament's tip-off EuroBasket 2009 in Poland has already started breaking records.
On Wednesday 17 June, 31,004 young people and celebrities gathered in the seven cities of EuroBasket 2009 - Katowice, Łodz, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Poznan, Wroclaw and Warsaw - to break the Guinness Record for the largest number of people bouncing a basketball simultaneously for five minutes.
The official number will only be confirmed on 18 June but the organizers say they have nothing to fear as the previous mark, communicated to them by officials at Guinness World Records was 5,000.
Vice-Premier Grzegorz Schetyna, the Minister of Sport and Tourism Mirosław Drzewiecki, Polish Basketball Federation President Roman Ludwiczuk, FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin and a number of Polish celebrities took part in the event which was broadcast live by EuroBasket 2009 host broadcaster TVP.
Poland national team members Łukasz Koszarek and Krzysztof Szubarga, and Polish basketball legend Maciej Zieliński, who was at hand in Wrocław, gave crash courses in ball-handling to participants.
"This was a superb, well organized occasion; I am sure it will help bring basketball and EuroBasket 2009 to the top of the scale of popularity in Poland," commented FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin, who witnessed the event in Warsaw.
All participants received a certificate of participation in the event and the basketball they used to break the record.
"I hope that today's effort will help promote basketball in the country. Every child which received the ball as a token of appreciation can maybe use it to learn how to play basketball," said Roman Ludwiczuk.
The event was staged by the Federation and the Local Organising Committee of EuroBasket 2009 in association with the seven cities' local Organising Committees and is part of the promotional activities linked to Eurobasket 2009, which will take place September 7-20 this year.
By FIBA Europe