Challenger in German port Hamburg was held on July 9-10. Serbian teams Liman Novi Sad and Partizan Belgrade played in the final game and Liman lifted the trophy.
Liman’s roster was weaker due to the absence of Mihailo Vasic, gold medalist for Serbia in the previous World Cup, who took a rest.Liman roster included Stefan Kojic, Nebojsa Kilijan, Aleksandar Ratkov, and newcomer Miroslav Pasajlic. Miroslav Pasajlic was playing for Ub in the previous two seasons.
In the group phase, Liman beat the Lithuanian team Kedaianiai with 21-11. Liman pulled out a 19-15 victory over Cairo in the second match in the group stage. A team from Novi Sad defeated the well-known team Jeddah from Saudi Arabia with 16-14. Stefan Kojic and his teammates won in the semifinal against Kaunas, another Lithuanian team, with 21-12.
Stefan Torbica, Marko Cakarevic, Marko Stevanovic, and Ivan Popovic played for Partizan in that tournament. Ivan Popovic is an ex–Ub player and he was welcomed into the Belgrade team with high expectations. Partizan needed to participate in qualification where he had two games. Belgrade team beat German Bamberg with 21-12, and then defeated France team Paris with 21-15.
In a group phase, Partizan won against Jeddah with 21-17. The club from Belgrade pulled out a victory over another German team Dusseldorf with 21-14. Partizan played against Kedainai and beat them with 17-16. In the semifinal, the Belgrade’s team defeated Hamburg with 21-17.
Liman was simply too strong for Partizan in the decisive game. Liman beat Partizan with 21-17 and became a champion of Challenger in the German city. Stefan Kojic, Liman’s player, was the best scorer in the final game with 9 points. Aleksandar Ratkov, his teammate, got the MVP award after being the best in the statistical category of Player Value. Here are highlights from that game:
Partizan surprised the 3×3 audience with excellent performance, especially if we know they got to the final of Challenger in Hamburg through qualifications.
Second-placed Partizan and third-placed Hamburg qualified for the Prague Masters on July 30-31. They joined already qualified Liman Huishan NE, Sakai Gulbele, Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy, Marijampole Mantinga, Washington DC, Riga, and UB Huishan NE.
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