The Polish national team is training before the Olympics qualifiers. Everyone is sweating
Coaches Igor Milicic, Michał Sokovski and Aleksandar Palcerowski have been with the squad since Monday. Team captain and captain Mateusz Bonnetka is expected on Thursday morning.
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Still missing are Jeffrey Grossell (his partner is expecting a baby) and AJ Slaughter, who finished the season very late in Venezuela.
– The first part of the training camp was very satisfactory from the point of view of the training staff. Particularly young players, born at the turn of the century, such as Igor Milicic junior, Szymon Wójcik or Andrzej Pluta, who are fighting for a place in the +twelve+, which will be entered for official matches under the auspices of FIBA, are working with great commitment. After dealing with dental problems, Przemysław Żołnierewicz returned to training. Łukasz Kolenda is with the team, but he does not train with the team, but prepares individually under coach Dominik Narojczyk. Once Sokołowski and Balcerowski joined the group, the quality of training definitely went up. As of today, everything looks good. The staff does not spare themselves. In the packed auditorium of the WKK Sports Center, because the weather doesn’t spoil us, everyone is sweating, Mikay Wijkowski, a team spokesman, told PAP.
Wednesday is scheduled to be open to the media at training camp. On July 29 and 30, the white and red teams will play two friendlies against the Netherlands at the WKK Sports Center in Wroclaw, which are closed to the public. From August 2 to August 6, they will take part in a tournament in Belgrade, where Serbia and Macedonia will be competitors. Then, from August 7 to 10, they will be in Istanbul, where they will play sparring matches with Turkey.
The Olympic pre-qualification tournament will be held in Gliwice (13-20 August) and only the winner will receive the right to play in the appropriate Olympic qualifiers next year. In the group stage, the Poles will face Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal.
The national team led by Igor Milicic at the FIBA European Championship 2022 finished fourth (for the first time since 1971, it reached the semi-finals). It also won pre-qualifications for the 2025 European Championships (and is the co-host of that event), which led to the possibility of competing in this year’s qualifiers for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Composition of the basketball team for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers:
Quarterback: Łukasz Kolenda (WKS Śląsk Wrocław), Andrzej Pluta (Trefl Sopot), AJ Slaughter (last season’s Dreamland Gran Canaria), Mateusz Szlachetka (Wild Warsaw)
caster: Jakub Garbacz (Anwil Włocławek), Michał Michalak (BM Stal Ostrów Wlkp.) and Mateusz Ponitka (Partizan Belgrade)
Small wings: Igor Milicic (Charlotte 49ers Sixers, NCAA), Jakub Niziu (WKS Śląsk Wrocław), Michał Sokowski (Jevi Napoli, Turkey), Przemyslav Żołnierewicz (last season Enea Zastal BC Zielona Góra)
strong wings: Szymon Wójcik (Sierleccy Czarni Słupsk Group), Jaroslaw Zyskowski (Trefl Sopot)
middle: Aleksander Palcerowski (Dreamland Gran Canaria, Spain), Jeffrey Grosel (Last season’s Legia Warszawa), Mikołaj Witlinski (Trevel Sopot).
RM, PAP
