Anton Alexandrowitsch Ponkraschow

Anton Ponkraschow
Player information
Full name	Anton Alexandrowitsch Ponkraschow
birthday	April 23, 1986 (34 years and 130 days)
place of birth	Leningrad, Soviet Union
size	200 cm
position	Shooting Guard / Small Forward
Club information
society	UNICS Kazan
league	PBL / VTB
Jersey number	33
Clubs as active
2002–2004 Konti Sankt Petersburg 2004–2006 BK Spartak Saint Petersburg 2006–2010 PBK CSKA Moscow → 2007–2009 BK Chimki 2010–2011 Spartak Saint Petersburg 2011–2013 CSKA Moscow 2013–2014 Krasnye Krylja Samara 2014–2015 Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd Since 2015 UNICS Kazan 00
National team
Since 2004 00	Russia

Anton Alexandrowitsch Ponkraschow medal table
Basketball (men)
Russia
Olympic games
bronze	2012 London
European Championship
gold	2007 Spain
bronze	2011 Lithuania

Anton Alexandrowitsch Ponkraschow ( Russian Антон Александрович Понкрашов ; born April 23, 1986 in Leningrad , RSFSR , USSR ) is a Russian basketball player . Ponkraschow played alongside clubs in his hometown for the dominant Russian basketball club PBK ZSKA from Moscow and the multiple Russian runner-up from the Moscow suburb of Chimki . With the Russian national team, he won the 2007 European basketball championship and a bronze medal at the 2011 European Championships . Ponkraschow is a very good template provider and can also play the point guard position, and his strengths are on the defensive.

Club career

In 2002 Ponkraschow moved from the Pulkowo club to the Russian second division club Konti in his hometown of Saint Petersburg . After the U18 European Championship in 2004, he then moved to the first division club Spartak . With Spartak he could not qualify for the play-offs for the Russian championship in the 2004/05 season , in the following 2005/06 season they found themselves at the end of the season even at the bottom of the table. For the 2006/07 season he moved to the serial champion and reigning Euroleague title holder CSKA Moscow, with whom he again won the championship and the Russian cup competition under the Italian coach Ettore Messina and reached the final of the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2006/07 , in to which one was defeated as defending champion Panathinaikos Athens .

For the 2007/08 season Ponkraschow was awarded to local rivals BK Chimki, with whom he lost to his former club CSKA in the Russian championship final series. In the Russian Cup final you could defeat ZSKA and achieve the first national title win for the club. In the ULEB Cup 2007/08 they reached under the Lithuanian coach Kęstutis Kemzūra after two clear victories in the sixteenth finals over the German club Köln 99ers, the last sixteen , in which one was clearly defeated by the later title winner Joventut de Badalona from Spain. Under the new Italian coach Sergio Scariolo , also coach of the Spanish national team , the Eurocup 2008/09 , the new name of the ULEB Cup, reached the final, this time after the quarter and semi-finals at the “ Elite Eight ” final tournament in Turin could defeat Spanish club teams. In the final, they finally lost to the Lithuanian club Lietuvos rytas Vilnius . In the Russian championship they failed again in the final series to CSKA.

In the 2009/10 season Ponkraschow played again for CSKA and won the championship final series now against BK Chimki. In the Russian Cup final and the newly introduced Eastern European VTB United League , they triumphed over UNICS Kazan . In the ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 they again reached the Final Four final tournament for the eighth time in a row , in which they were defeated in the semifinals by the eventual title winners FC Barcelona and finally reached third place. For the 2010/11 season he moved back to his hometown to Spartak. Spartak lost to his former club BK Chimki as fifth in the main round in the championship quarter-finals and finished seventh in the championship after the placement games. In the Russian cup competition, which took place without the participants in the VTB United League, you could win the title. For the 2011/12 season Ponkraschow returned to ZSKA.

National team

For the first time in a final squad Ponkraschow was at the European basketball championship 2005 . In addition to a short assignment, he was only used significantly in the final game for seventh place, which was lost against Croatia comparatively significantly with 74:92. Since they did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup with eighth place , the next important tournament was the 2007 European Championship . Here they did very respectably and won all games except for one intermediate round match against hosts Spain , which was clearly lost by 22 points. Ponkraschow received only a small amount of time or did not play at all, as in the second round defeat against Spain. In the final, where they met Spain again, national coach David Blatt suddenly used the defensively strong Ponkraschow for 18 minutes, so that he was an unexpected "X-factor" in the surprising one-point victory over the favored hosts. For the 2008 Olympic Games , Ponkraschow was eliminated as one of the last two players from the final squad.

At the EM 2009 Ponkraschow was represented in the final squad again. However, after a quarter-final defeat against Serbia , the defending champion only reached seventh place after beating the Turkish national basketball team in the final game , against which Ponkraschow showed his strongest tournament performance with 16 points and 9  assists . However, the Turks as hosts were the only opponent who could defeat the Russians at the 2010 World Cup in the preliminary round. In the quarter-finals, the Russian selection then lost to the eventual title winner USA and also achieved seventh place in this tournament. At the EM 2011 all games were won, including another quarter-final against Serbia, up to the semi-final, which was lost to France . In the game for third place they won the bronze medal against the surprise team of the Macedonia tournament . In contrast to the 2010 World Cup, national coach Blatt gave Ponkraschow only a reduced proportion of the game at the 2011 European Championship. Ponkraschow belonged to the squad of the Russian national team at the Olympic Games in 2012. Here he was used as the "second playmaker" behind Sweden . In London, Russia won the bronze medal by beating Argentina 81:77 .

successes

• European Champion 2007
• Russian champion 2007, 2012, 2013
• Russian cup winner 2007, 2008, 2010

Web links

• PONKRASHOV, ANTON - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Anton PONKRASHOV (RUS) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• PBC CSKA Moscow | Team | Anton Ponkrashov - player profile on the website of CSKA Moscow

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Latest News - Olympic Basketball Men Roster. Sports-Express.ru, July 28, 2008, archived from the original on July 11, 2012 ; accessed on October 29, 2011 (English).