Other events in Baltic States

The Latvian under-20 women's basketball team defeated the defending champions Russia 78-75 (18-26, 23-18, 10-15, 27-16) in the bronze medal game of the European U-20 Women's Basketball Championships in Poland on Sunday, reports LETA.

It is the second time that the national U-20 women's basketball team wins bronze at the European Championships. The U-20 team took bronze in 2005 for the first time, when the team was coached by Ainars Cukste, who is the head coach again this year.

The national U-20 men's basketball team has also won bronze medals, at the 2007 European Championships.

The highest scorer for the Latvian team yesterday was Elina Babkina with 25 points and eight assists. Liene Priede scored 13 points and Liga Surkusa 12, including a winning three-pointer.

Russia was leading for almost the entire game. Two seconds before the end of the game, the result was 75-75. The ball was inbounded from half-court and quickly passed to Surkusa, who scored the winning three-point throw.

In the gold medal game on Sunday, France beat Spain 74-52.

As reported, the Latvian team crushed Serbia 89-71 in the quarterfinals of the European Championships on Friday.

In the qualifying round, the Latvian team beat Sweden 89-70, but then lost to Russia 65-71 and to France 65-74.

In the preliminary round, Latvia wound up in first place in Group C, defeating Czech Republic 67-53, Lithuania 85-69 and Poland 86-69.

At the last U-20 European Championships, the Latvian team finished in sixth place.

The Latvian roster participating at the European Championships: Elina Babkina, Baiba Eglite, Anna Gailite, Anete Klintsone, Ieva Krastina, Karline Nimane, Diana Ozolina, Liene Priede, Laura Purina, Anete Steinberga, Liga Surkusa, Laura Vetra.

Ainars Cukste is the head coach and Edijs Eglitis is the assistant coach.