Zurab Sakandelidze

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Zurab Sakandelidze (born August 9, 1945 in Kutaisi , † January 25, 2004 in Tbilisi ) was a Georgian basketball player who played for the Soviet Union and was world champion in 1967 and Olympic champion in 1972.

Athletic career

The 1.86 m tall Zurab Sakandelidze played for BK Dinamo Tiflis . With this club he was the 1968 Soviet champion.

1964 Sakandelidse was Junior European Champion. In 1965 he played with the Soviet national team at the European Championships , which were held in Moscow and Tbilisi. In the final, the Soviet team won against the Yugoslavs . Sakandelidze scored 38 points in seven games. In 1967 at the World Cup in Uruguay there was a final round with seven teams: host Uruguay and six teams that had to qualify through the preliminary round. The team from the USSR was defeated by 58:59 against the team from the United States , but defeated the other five teams and was thus the first world championship team from Europe. Sakandelidze contributed with 51 points in nine games, including ten points in the last game against Yugoslavia, to win the title. In autumn 1967 the European championship took place in Finland . The team from the Soviet Union won the final against the Czechoslawak team with 89:77. Sakandelidse scored 77 points in nine games, seven of them in the final.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the team from the USSR won their preliminary group ahead of the Brazilians . In the semifinals, the Soviet team lost to the Yugoslavs with 62:63, in the final bronze game they defeated the Brazilians with 70:53. Sakandelidze threw 64 points in nine games, including 14 points in the last game. The following year, the Soviet team reached the final of the European Championship in Italy in 1969 and won 81:72 against the Yugoslavs. Sakandelidze scored 45 points in seven games. The 1970 World Cup took place in Yugoslavia and for the first time on the European continent. As in 1967, six teams qualified through the preliminary round, Yugoslavia as host was set for the final round in Ljubljana. The Yugoslavs won the title, behind the Brazilians the players from the Soviet Union received the bronze medal. Sakandelidze scored 42 points in eight games. At the European Championships in 1971 in the Federal Republic of Germany, the team from the USSR met the Yugoslavs once again in the final and won 69:64. This was the fourth time in a row that Sakandelidse was European champion, and Modestas Paulauskas was also part of the four title wins. Sakandelidse scored 31 baskets in seven games in 1971, eight of them in the final.

Up to and including 1968, Olympic basketball tournaments were always won by the United States team. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, the US team won their preliminary group and the Soviet team won the second preliminary group without defeat. Both teams also won their semi-finals and met in the final on September 9th. The Americans switched to a very defensive tactic, but were still behind at half-time with 21:26. The American Doug Collins scored six seconds before the end and put his team 50:49 in front . Then the final siren sounded. After protests by the Soviet team, the clock was set to three seconds remaining and Alexander Below scored the 51:50 in the last three seconds . Now the Americans protested, but the jury confirmed the victory of the Soviet team. Sakandelidze scored 38 points in nine games, eight of them in the final against the United States. At the end of his international career, Sakandelidze won bronze again at the European Championships in Spain in 1973 , but was no longer a regular player with 14 points in seven games.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Medal winner at the European basketball championships at sport-komplett.de
  2. ↑ Player statistics of the EM 1965 at archive.fiba.com
  3. ↑ Medal winner at basketball world championships at sport-komplett.de
  4. ↑ Player statistics from the 1967 World Cup at archive.fiba.com
  5. ↑ Player statistics of the EM 1967 at archive.fiba.com
  6. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 . Pp. 140 to 143
  7. ↑ Player statistics from the 1968 Olympic Games at archive.fiba.com
  8. ↑ Player statistics of the EM 1969 at archive.fiba.com
  9. ↑ Player statistics from the 1970 World Cup at archive.fiba.com
  10. ↑ Player statistics of the EM 1971 at archive.fiba.com
  11. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 , pp. 358 to 360 and pp. 432f, notes 652 and 655
  12. ↑ Player statistics from the 1972 Olympic Games at archive.fiba.com
  13. ↑ Player statistics of the European Championship 1973 at archive.fiba.com
personal data
SURNAME Sakandelidze, Zurab
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Kutaisi
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 2004
Place of death Tbilisi