Friday was the longest day from this tournament, having 4 games. My new crew (Irina Konan from Belarus as «crew-chief» and Arek Bitman from Poland) had the first game at 08:20 a.m. We had two games in a row, girls ’96 in a gym called Grondal.
Games went OK, we had some difficulties with mechanics, but overall I liked this crew much better then the day before. All the three of us had officiated in three-person before, so it was a little bit easier.
This gym was crowded by enthusiastic parents even though it was an early morning game, so it was definitely a nice atmosphere to start the day.
We had two afternoon games, girls ’97, starting from 13:30. In our second game Lars Klaar was our observer. Even though our concentration wasn’t that sharp as in the beginning of the day, I felt that we could keep the game in our hands. We worked good in mechanics. The level of the contacts we allowed in the game wasn’t the same. We had the same criteria for contact with Irina but Arek a different one.
At 7 p.m we had a «lecture» with Luigi Lamonica. It wasn’t a power point presentation, it was more like an open conversation, a little look «behind the scenes».
My Saturday’s crew members were Adalsteinn Hjartarson from Switzerland, who just gained his FIBA license back, and Arek Bitman from Poland again. We had three games this day, two in Ostertalje gym (boys ’99 and girls ’97) and one quarterfinal in Vestergard gym (girls ’97). We had very nice games, and the team-work was also good. In the quarterfinal Åsa Johanson was observing us.
Evening meeting started at 23:00. After some clips about the «superstars of the day», it was time for the nominations for the finals. I got the ’95 girls final together with Kate Webb from England and Irina Konan from Belarus. I’m really looking forward to it!
I will return soon with more details.
V.
