BiH ends Golden League of Nations in sitting volleyball with victory over Ukraine

(Patria) - The national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina ended its participation in the Golden League of Nations in sitting volleyball, held in Sarajevo over the past three days, with a 3:1 victory over Ukraine.

The golden boys of BiH sports thus defended their title as the best team in the competition, which they have won for the fourth time. At the very start of the match, coach Ifet Mahmutović gave a chance to younger players, who repaid him with good play, so the first set ended in favor of the BiH team with a score of 25:20. In the second set, we continued with excellent play, so the third set began after 25:12 for BiH.

In the third set, there was a drop in concentration among our national team players, which was exploited by the Ukrainian players, winning the set 25:20. The last set of the match brought better play from the BiH national team, but the Ukrainians did not give up until the very end, so the BiH team did not use five set points. However, in the last attack after a block by Alibašić, the match ended.

This tournament served as preparation for the Paralympic Games, which will be held this year in Paris, and the BiH team lost only one set in five matches.

“We achieved what we set out to do, which is to win the Golden League among the best national teams in Europe. We gave a chance to the young players and we can say that we have a good team for the Paralympics. The lost set is a bit of nervousness and fear of responsibility, but it is only a sign that they need to play even more matches and, of course, expect results from them. What I have emphasized before is that there is a bit of fatigue from European and domestic competitions, but that the 12 players selected for the Paralympics have justified expectations,” said coach Mahmutović.

The best team of the tournament consists of best spiker Edvin Zdionica, best receiver Mirko Tadić-Zečević, best blocker Marcian Polak from Poland, and four players from the BiH team: best setter Adnan Manko, best libero Ismet Godinjak, best server Ermin Jusufović, and tournament MVP Mirzet Duran.

Second place went to the German team, while third place was taken by the Croatian national team. In the final standings, fourth place went to Poland, fifth were the Ukrainians, and sixth place was taken by the Serbian national team.