SIN - Youth Olympic Games - Day Four

SINGAPORE (Youth Olympic Games) - Hola chicas y chicos!

After fixing some major holes in the tentage over night, the games began as scheduled in the morning. The problem with it seems to be fixed as no rain came through the roof today and the program went down without any disturbances.

Girls-Highlights
Thailand wanted to be the next "Egypt" in this tournament as they took the Czech Republic into overtime, but the Europeans had the longer breath and shaking off their initial problems with the Asians' creative play, to winning it at the very end.

The Aussies brought their opponents to tears as they simply overpowered the hard working Italians in the paint, going some way to make up for yesterday's poor outing. This result comes as a setback for the Azurri, which hosts players from the 2010 U-18 European Champions.

Same goes for Germany, as they bounced back with a win over the Belarus team in spite of trailing for most of the game.
The strongly built Chinese secured another victory today after edging Brazil. Canada is still on track after routing Korea to make it three in a row in this tournament.

The Japanese girls eventually found a way to handle the surprisingly good Chileans to undermine their status as a candidate for the knock-out stages.

Boys-Highlights

The Central African Republic today put themselves on the 3-on-3 map after collecting a win in their match-up with Israel. They repeatedly showed a very athletic all-around game, scoring through a combination of penetration, jump-shots and 3's.

After leading for a long time, the Philippines ran out of gas in the closing minutes of their game against Croatia and lost yet again here in Singapore. In spite of the height-disadvantage, the Bobby Parks-led team showed what they are capable of. "Croatia did not win today, but the Philippines lost", said a reporter in the stands.

The USA needed a strong game by Sterling Gibbs to knock-out hosts Singapore who had some stellar moments against the favorites, but couldn't match up against twin towers Chol and Caudill in the end.

The Egyptians were a bit nervous going into their game against Argentina following their victory over Lithuania and lost the surprise factor as the Gauchos scored almost all of their points through penetration to get away with a win.

And finally, Serbia clashed with the big bodies from New Zealand to bring home another win without a lot of stress. It was  "babyface" Popovski especially who showed a variety of skills to lead the Serbs into the next round.

Here is a flashback to yesterday's highlights.

For extensive video coverage and an interesting interview with Ryan Burke of Sport Court regarding the basketball court, log on to FIBA TV !

There have also been some rumors that a former NBA-player from Lithuania is in town with a bag full of "duty-free goods" to please the FIBA crew. Also, we were wondering why Paraguay has no girls-team in place…

Here as always, my daily favorite!

Results of Day Four:

Girls
Russia -Vanuatu 33-5 (Kozochkina 11 points - Izono 4 points)
Angola - Singapore 20-14 (Afonso 9 - Tok 6)
Czech Republic -Thailand 28-26 (Vackova 9 - Buapa 10)
Italy - Australia 15-29 (C.Dotto 6 - Kaser 13)
Korea - Canada 6-20 (Lee 4 - Traore 7)
Belarus - Germany 13-15 (Baklaha 5 - Gohlisch 8)
Brazil -China 24-28 (Isabela 12 - Jin 13)
Japan - Chile 24-17 (Nagaoka 9 - Vasquez 6)

Boys
India - Greece 20-33 (Goswan 9 - Tsiloulis 12)
Panama -Iran 21-29 (Archibold 9 - Sedighi 10)
USA - Singapore 31-21 (Gibbs 14- Su 9)
US Virgin Islands - Spain 11-17 (Swanston 4 - Costa 7)
Serbia - New Zealand 30-13 (Avramovic 12 - Ashby 7)
Argentina - Egypt 30-24 (Zanzottera 15 - Ibrahim 10)
Israel - Central African Republic 17-25 (Chernuvych 10 - Londoumon 12)
Philippines - Croatia 19-22 (Parks 7 - Ramljak 14)

FIBA