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The start of International Amateur Basketball League (IABL) of 2016 in Riga

The Fifth International Amateur Baketball League tournament was opened in February, 2016. New teams from Hoganas city , Sweden and “Torpedo“ Moscow joined the old-timer teams this season.
This year the representatives from Belarus are not participating in the tournament. The decision was taken to miss this season in expectation to join next year IABL tournament.

This year there are 7 teams in all: Kaunas KKL national team, Vilnius “Tegra“( both from Lithuania), Kiev LM ( Ukraine), Riga “VEF“ ( Latvia), Sankt Petersburgh, Moscow “Torpedo“ (both from Russia) and Hoganas ( Sweden ).

During three tournaments the teams have to play games once against each rival, later on playoffs and finals.

The first tournament took place in February in Riga, the second takes place in April in Sweden, and the third one as well as the final Four takes place in June in Alicante, Spanish resort.
So, during the first tournament in Riga, a league novice team Hoganas from Sweden and old-timer team from Sankt Petersburg have met for the first game on the site.
Three halfs of the game were very persistent and Swedish were the leaders, though in the last half Russians took the initiative and won a difficult first victory in a result 88:78.

Two Lithuanian teams had a fight in the second match , i.e. Vilnius and Kaunas teams as eternal rivals. After a long and tiring fight, basketball players from the capital city were the winners, defeating the players from Kaunas in a result 88:86.

The third ones, i.e. the host of the tournament and the Ukrainians as the champions of the last year IABL played a match. Latvians did welcome and won against the guests from Kiev in a result 81:68

In the fourth game betweeen teams from Russia, the representatives from Petersburgh were stronger against Torpedo from Moscow in a result 119:82, actually the latter ones were not able to play with their strongest forces,as not all best players could come to the tournament, so this team hasn‘t shown its true face yet.

The fifth were Swedish, who appeared on the site with a succesfully passed test as a novice team and won against the last year IABL champions in five points difference - 87:82. This victory has been the first and historical one for Swedish in IABL tournament ever.

During the last but one game of the tournament, the host team “VEF“from Riga won against Tegra from Vilnius with difficulties in a result 83:75.

And in the final game of the tournament the team from Kaunas easily won against „Torpedo“from Moscow thus recording the first win in this season.

During the closing party of the tournament, the most valued players of each team were awarded and presented with memorial prizes. Next tournament takes place on 8-10 April in Sweden. Follow the information on www.iabl.eu website and IABL facebook account.