Alfrēds Krauklis

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Alfrēds Krauklis
Personal information
BornDecember 8, 1911
Jumprava, Lielvārde Municipality, Latvia
DiedNovember 20, 1991(1991-11-20) (aged 79)
Riga, Latvia
Medal record
Representing  Latvia
Men’s Basketball
European Championships
Silver medal – second place
1939 Lithuania
Team Competition

Alfrēds Krauklis (8 December 1911,

Latvian national basketball team in the 1930s, and winner of the silver medal in FIBA EuroBasket 1939
. Once he stopped playing, he became a coach and sports event organizer.

Player

Krauklis played in 28 games as the captain of the Latvian national team that won a silver medal in FIBA EuroBasket 1939 (in Kaunas, Lithuania). After World War II and the start of the second Soviet occupation of Latvia he played on the team of the Latvian SSR (1945–1949). Beginning from 1940, he worked as a player-coach. As a member of BK Rīga Starts (1933, 1938, 1943, 1944) and BK Daugava (1945–1948), he became the champion of Latvia 8 times.

In a 1990s interview, Krauklis said: "Frankly saying – these three Baltic states raised the European basketball. Now they say that its Spanish, and so what? Let them say... And I say – it's our merit!".[2]

Coach

From 1949 to 1958 Krauklis organized and managed BK Rīga „Spartaks” (in 1953 for a short period of time he was managing

Spartakiades of Peoples of the USSR. He was received the honor of Meritorious Coach of the USSR
.

He also worked in Latvian youth basketball for 25 years, coaching the VEF Rīga junior team and a youth sports school. The sports school was later named after him.[3] It annually holds an international basketball tournament for youth, the Alfrēds Krauklis Memorial Tournament in Riga.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Human Alfreds Krauklis | A.Kraukļa piemiņas turnīrs". Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  2. ^ Telecast "Mūsų krepšinis" (Season: 1; Episode: 1; Quotation begins at 10:20)
  3. ^ "HISTORY – Alfrēda Kraukļa VEF Basketbola skola" (in Latvian). Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  4. ^ "A.Kraukļa piemiņas turnīrs". alfredakrauklacup.lv. Retrieved 2019-07-09.

Other sources