TRNC to face Palestine in boxing showdown,
THE TRNC’S Near East University (NEU) women’s basketball team are through to the last four of the EuroLeague, keeping their hopes of a treble alive.
NEU scored a thumping 8566 victory over Bourges Basket in France on Wednesday in the second leg of a best-of-three quarter final, having won the first 83-67 in İstanbul last week.
Kayla McBride and Jantel Lavender were NEU’s stars, each notching up 20 points for their side.
The “straight sets” win means they will contest the next round on April 22, with the final and the third-place play-off taking place two days later.
They must wait until next week to find out who their semifinal opponents will be, however, after contenders Fenerbahçe and Sopron Basket, of Hungary, levelled their quarter-final.
The Turkish side won the first leg 60-55 in Hungary on February 28 before losing 78-72 in İstanbul on Wednesday, leaving all to play for in the decider on Wednesday, again in Sopron.
With the Turkish Cup already in NEU’s trophy cabinet for the second year running, following a finals victory a fortnight ago, the Lefkoşa-based team are also looking to retain their Turkish Women’s Super League.
But their campaign suffered a setback on Sunday when main rivals Fenerbahçe secured a thrilling 66-65 defeat — only the second in NEU’s league season — in the dying minutes of their encounter in İstanbul.
The result puts Fenerbahçe in second place on 35 points, just one behind NEU going into the 20th of 26 weeks of competition. THE TRNC boxing team is preparing for a showdown next month against the Palestinian national squad.
The contest, involving several ICE storms, strong winds, thick fog and lightning were not enough to stop a Turkish Cypriot volleyball player striking gold at an international tournament in Turkey on Sunday.
Buğra Eryıldız and playing partner Aleyna Vence, representing the host nation, won the women’s final of the Uludağ leg of the CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour, despite play being severely disrupted by the adverse weather.
Supported by the home crowd, third-seeded Eryıldız and Vence came back from a set down in their semi-final against fourth-seeded Russians Ksenia Dabizha and Liudmila Dayanova to claim a 2-1 (4-11, 11-8, 11-6) victory and individual bouts, will take place at 3pm on Sunday, April 8, at Lefkoşa’s Atatürk Sports Hall and is promised by TRNC Boxing Federation organisers progress to the final. There the pair cruised to a 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 114) win against 10th-seeded Slovakians Silvia Poszmikova and Romana Jurenkova.
This is the second gold and overall third medal for Eryıldız and Vence, out of three competitions on the tour this year.
“We played not only against our opponents, but also against the weather conditions,” Ms Eryıldız said.
“We played our game. The crowd was cheering for us and that motivated us a lot. We are a relatively new duo. We have been playing together for six months now and we expect more success in the future.” as “one of the biggest events of its kind”.
Fight fans are being asked to turn out en masse to support the Turkish Cypriot boxers.
Ms Vence said: “It feels so good to win [a] gold medal again. We won gold at the previous Turkish stop in Erciyes, but winning in Bursa feels special because I love this city. We expect nothing but medals in the tournaments to come.”
The players thanked their fans for coming to the venue, despite the harsh conditions, and expressed gratitude to their sponsors and the Turkish Volleyball Federation and for making their success possible.
The tour moves to Slovenia this weekend and back to Italy next weekend, before a European Championships meet in Austria from March 23 to 25.