The message has been sent from the city of Turkey, Unie to the mayor of Kutaisi. The authority of Unie was asking Georgian side to send Georgian basketball player girls for participation in traditional Summer festival. The answer was not late and.. the winner of Georgian basketball children’s league 2011, the 10th sport complex school left for Unie. Kutaisi girls will hold two matches, one of them against local club and the second one against Ordu. There was very warm welcome party in Unie, which has really unique location. The population of the city is 78000. The mayor of the city met Georgians at Akhmed Arfajioglu’s study and there he represented them Turkish basketball players.
It was two-day visit and five hours later after arrival Georgian held the first match. Guest team started well and won the first quarter 16:12, but in the second period Turkish side gained superiority. Guests equalized many times, but finally the match ended in favor of Turkish team- 69:59.
As it has been already mentioned, the second rival of Georgians was from the city of Ordu, but due to some reasons they did not come for holding the match and that’s why Georgians held the second match against Unie basketball team. Georgians lost the second match too – 60:68.
Shenol Cherlikagha(head coach of Unie team):” I would like to thank Kutaisi team for visit. They are good girls. In spite of failure, they deserve appraisal. I have to say that we beat them, because we have more experienced players. There were some difficult moments. The matched were very helpful for both of the teams. Girls have already made friends with each other in spite of a short time. I hope we will meet each other again”.
Temur Kubaneishvili (head coach of Kutaisi team):” you are supposed to know that the season was not held in children’s league. We have not played more than year. We were just training. Due to some reasons we did not arrive in Turkey with a strong staff and it is the only reason of our failure. But they were just sparring matches. Girls played abroad first time and they gained a lot of experience here”.
Ramaz Maglaperidze (principle of the 100th sport complex school):”first of all, I would like to thank Gia Tevdoradze mayor of Kutaisi, with his help we managed to arrive in Turkey. I am very surprised with hospitality of Unie. We were feeling a lot of care from them. They expressed a strong wish coming in Kutaisi”.
Iuza Katsitadze from Unie
Photos by Author
