Quote:Small Cyprus wins Big Gold
Cyprus won the gold medal in the 13th Games of the Small States of Europe. They managed to do so in an emphatic way which left no room for any hope for their opponents as they managed 5 wins in 5 games with an average difference of 23.5 points.
Cyprus started their campaign for the Gold Medal against their immediate opponent Luxemburg who was the only nation who could challenge Cyprus. Despite that Cyprus won rather easily 80-57.
During the next days Cyprus cruised past Iceland, San Marino, Malta and Andorra to secure their 7th Gold Medal and the 4th in a row in the Games of the Small National of Europe.
For the record, Luxemburg won the silver medal while Andorra came up 3rd. Unfortunately for Iceland who were one of the tournament's favourites they missed out of the medal chase.
Larrie Smith and Martin Rajniak (LUX) were the top scorers of tournament with 89 and 80 points respectively, Martin Rajniak (LUX), Rafa Casals (AND) and Apostolos Kaskiris (CYP) blocked 5 shots each, Larrie Smith (LUX) and Oriol Fernandez (AND) each stole 15 balls while Xavier Galera (AND) and Giorgos Palalas (CYP) made their teammates very happy by dishing out 37 and 21 assists respectively.
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* The president of the Cyprus Olympic Committee, Ouranios Ioannidis, presented the medals to the top three nations. Gold to Cyprus, silver to Luxemburg and bronze to Andorra.