Greece wins Eurobasket championship
Greece on
Sunday beat Germany 78-62 in the European men's basketball championship, in
the Serbian capital, Belgrade, taking the gold medal for a second time in 18
years.
It was Greece's first Eurobasket final since 1989 and first gold since 1987.
Greece became the first country after the Soviet Union in 1961 to reign simultaneously as European champion in soccer and basketball.
Germany won its first medal since winning the title at home in 1993.
In Greece, thousands of fans poured into the streets of Athens. The celebrations echoed Greece's triumph at the European soccer championship in Portugal last year. Similar celebrations occurred in cities throughout the country and even spread to Cyprus, where hundreds of Greek Cypriots gathered in the capital, Nicosia, and danced to the tunes of Number One, the Greek entry which won the Eurovision song contest a few months ago.
Prime Minister
Costas Karamanlis and opposition leaders congratulated the national team on
their victory.
The 34th European Basketball Championship kicked off on Sept. 16. The top
six teams of the championship are Greece, Germany, France, Spain,
Lithuania and Slovenia. Those teams are
entitled to attend the World Championship slated in
Japan next year.
"They were just a step quicker," Germany coach Dirk Bauermann said.
"Now I am on top of Europe, not as a player but as coach," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis, who played on the 1987 team.
"It's a massive achievement for a country of 11 million to win European titles in soccer and basketball and stage the Olympic Games, all within the space of a year," Panayiotis Fasoulas, a member of the winning team in 1987, told private MEGA TV.
