An intensive training session for gifted young basketball players drew to a close in Nizhny Novgorod

6 october 2021

Nizhny Novgorod’s basketball players born in 2007 and 2010 took part in a sports and educational program set up by the Basketball Federation of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast and the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) with SIBUR’s support.

The training camp in Nizhegorodskaya Oblast marks yet another step toward developing a regional system for spotting, supporting and developing abilities and talents of gifted children and youth athletes that is being worked on by the Basketball Federation of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast and Vega, the Regional Center for Developing Children’s and Youth’s Abilities and Talents, operating on the basis of the model pioneered by the Sirius Federal Educational Center. The training camp was held on the premises of the Olympian Center that serves as the base of the Vega Center's Sports activities.

For two weeks, 33 young basketball players from Nizhny Novgorod practiced new athletic techniques and game-playing tactics, learned to act as one cohesive team, and to produce the needed results. The event was mentored by RBF coaches with a dedicated master class conducted by Honored Master of Sport, European Champion Nikita Morgunov. SIBUR issued the participants with athletic uniforms and eco-balls made of recycled plastic.

The camp’s program is based on the best practices of SIBUR’s Basketball School, a social project aimed at supporting children's and youth’s sports. The training session became a pilot stage of a program to develop promising basketball talents in Nizhny Novgorod implemented jointly by the Sirius Educational Center and the RBF with the support of SIBUR in various Russian regions. As part of the program, young basketball players from the region will be offered a chance to play big-league basketball: participants of future intensive sessions will be able to become candidates for the regional select team and be included in the Gold Reserve of the junior national team.

Thanks to this program, the kids were able to learn from true basketball stars. This is something that, down the road, will offer them a chance to get noticed and find their way into a major-league game. All participants really worked hard to prove their mettle and showed their great potential. I wish these young players new victories! I am sure that this experience they have gained here will help them advance in their athletic careers, Sergey Bykov, the project’s supervisor and SIBUR's basketball development program’s leader and ambassador, noted.

We are very glad that we were able to successfully implement such a new and promising project in our region. One of the main goals of every federation is to develop and nurture the country’s pool of athletic talents, and so the program to develop promising basketball players is very important for our region. During the session, the boys got the opportunity to not only go through a full-fledged training camp, but to also train under the guidance of coaches who are directly associated with the country’s national team. All of this will help us develop talented players starting at the level of local sport schools all the way to the Russian national team’s level, Ilya Khairetdinov, Head of Basketball Federation of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, commented.

For any athlete, the real test is an actual tournament whereas the training camp and all that goes with it - hard work, strict regimen, physical exertion and exercise - serves as the basis, the foundation of a victory. We hope that attending the camp will be these boys’ first step toward a robust athletic career, and that our cooperation with the regional federation will have a positive effect on the development of children’s and youth’s basketball in Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, Alexander Shabaev, Director of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast’s Olympian Children’s and Youths’ Center, noted.