Spain - Spain gets its 5th medal in European Tournaments for the training leagues

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Spain now has a full house of medals during the summer of 2007. At five big European tournaments they made it to the final games, and saw brilliant results as they came home with one gold and four silver medals. And summer isn’t over yet.

While it seemed difficult to surpass last summer, for Spain's training leagues 2007 is already on the right track. At four European Championship tournaments, and one unofficial U15 tournament, Spain went to the awards podium five times to receive four silver and one gold medal.?
Summer began with the fourth consecutive medal won by the girls of the U18 category. The promising group from ’89 was unable to reclaim the games of Tenerife in 2006 to bring home their fourth consecutive gold medal, having won two at the cadet level and one at the junior level, yet they gave great evidence of their power upon matching the two consecutive silvers won in 2004 and 2005.

The male European U20 category ended its history of being a cursed category for Spain in the last few years. Since the silver medal of 2002, Spain has been unable to win another medal, and this time Juan Antonio Orenga knew how to direct the group of promising players which now rub elbows with the elite of Spanish basketball upon winning the silver medal. The success of the U20 men spurred on the U20 women who were able to surpass the men and become European champions. It was the first time that Spain won this category and they were also ranked number one.

On the home stretch of the month of July, the younger teams got a chance to show what they were made of. The U16 boys showed their claws and were able to reclaim the title they had previously won a year ago in Jaén. An injury of an important player in the group, Alberto Jodar, wasn’t enough to hold them back, and they fought for their title until the last second. They missed the gold medal by one point, but Spain has completed a series of bronze-gold-silver medals in this category.

The U15 boys participated in the Olympic Youth Festival of Europe (FOGES), which is an unofficial European championship that the best national teams of that category attend. Once again, Spain demonstrated its tireless junior players. The final game was against Lithuania and the Spanish players coached by José María Raventos were able to hang silver medals around their necks.

Summer of 2007 has already seen two world championship tournaments as well. Spain again played well, although the players were unable to place for a medal. The U21 women placed 9th at the world games in Moscow (Russia), while the U18 boys were 8th in Novi Sad (Serbia).??Spain’s medal count could increase in August with the following competitions about to be played out: European Championships for the U16 girls in Latvia (July 27th-August 5th), the World Championship games for the U19 women (July 26th-August 5th), and the European Championships for the U18 boys in Madrid (August 3rd-12th).

September is the month for Spain’s top national teams with the men playing from September 3rd-16th in Spain, and the women playing from September 24th- October7th in Italy.