Message of hope from basketball - Ready to deliver if necessary
Gibraltar’s sports might have come to a total standstill for now but there was still a message of optimism from many in sport, especially basketball.
The sport had finally completed its 2020 league just days before the latest shutdown of all facilities after restrictions across Gibraltar were increased before Christmas. It’s experience during the Spring/summer lockdown had also seen it create its own innovative programme which provided its players with additional activities. The lessons learnt during that period will now be assessed once again in the eventuality that’s they will need to come into place once again.
GABBA President John Goncalves had a message of hope for the sport, “We managed to wrap up the 2020 senior men league competitions in one fifth of the time that we were stopped by the pandemic. In that time, we also started the 2021 League Cup competitions for senior women, u18, u16 and u14 boys, u18 and u14 girls, u12 mixed (a first), and u10 and u8 minibasket. The total number of youth players exceeds 350, which augurs well for the future of basketball in Gibraltar.”
“We are ready to continue, and to start the 2021 senior men competitions, for which 12 teams have registered, as soon as we are allowed to do so. And if we cannot start with team competitions, we shall hold Skills Challenges, which were greatly successful in the summer, culminating with our participation in the FIBA u17 World Skills Challenge.”