The international tournament of the European Youth Basketball League will be held in Vitebsk

March 21, Minsk /Corr. BELTA/. The International Tournament of the European Youth Basketball League (EYBL) will be held from March 22 to 25 in Vitebsk, BELTA was informed by the press service of the Belarusian Basketball Federation. Eight teams from Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and Poland will take part in the tournament. The age of the participants is 19-20 years. The competitions will be held at the Vitebsky Central Sports Complex. The game program starts on Friday, March 23 at 9:00 AM. The Vitebsk stage of the International Tournament of the European Youth Basketball League will be the third one. The previous two were held in Belarus and Latvia. The final fourth stage will be held in Riga from April 26 to 29. The representative from Belarus in this basketball league is the Minsk team BSUIR. The other participants are: Khimki (Russia), Volgograd (Russia), Dynamo (Moscow, Russia), Riga (Latvia), Liepaja (Latvia), DSN (Riga, Latvia), Trefl (Sopot, Poland). After two stages in the combined EYBL standings, Minsk's BSUIR is in 3rd place with 18 points after 10 matches. Only Estonia's Hito (Kohtla-Järve) with 20 points after 10 matches and Poland's Trefl (Sopot) with 19 points (10 matches) are ahead. A total of 16 teams are participating in the tournament, and the 4 best teams will advance to the final stage. The official partner of the EYBL in Belarus is VTB Bank (Belarus), which actively participates in the development of basketball in our country. The European Youth Basketball League was established with the participation of youth sports schools with the aim of strengthening international ties, promoting basketball in European countries, and, most importantly, improving the skill level of youth teams by providing regular official international matches. These competitions are of great importance for the Belarusian team, as its core consists of players who will represent the Belarusian youth team at the European Championship in Bulgaria in the summer of 2012. -0-