The Ukrainian Deaflympic teams achieved remarkable success at the 3×3 Basketball World Championship held in Zlatibor, Serbia, capturing two championship titles and a fifth-place finish. Ukraine was represented at the tournament by three squads: two men’s teams and one women’s team.
The women’s national team, featuring Ksenia Afanasyeva, Oleksandra Semenchuk, Olena Khoroshikh, and Kateryna Chernysh, dominated the tournament from the start. They advanced through the group stage and knockout rounds with convincing victories over Mongolia, Italy, Poland-2, Lithuania-1, the United States, Taiwan, and Lithuania. In the final match, the Ukrainian women defeated Poland-1 with a score of 21–14, finishing the championship undefeated and claiming the gold medal with their seventh consecutive win.
In the men’s division, the Ukraine-1 team—composed of Vitaliy Bykov, Yevhen Brechko, Maksym Mykhailov, and Andriy Raus—similarly swept through the competition. They secured victories against Venezuela, Taiwan, Lithuania-1, Poland-2, Poland-1, Greece, and Venezuela again in the semifinals. In a hard-fought final against the tournament hosts, the Ukrainian men triumphed over Serbia with a score of 21–17, also capturing the gold medal without suffering a single loss.
The third Ukrainian squad, Ukraine-2, consisting of Yegor Kropyv’yansky, Ivan Kulikov, Yaroslav Stryzhak, and Myroslav Tkalenko, also performed strongly. After securing notable group-stage wins against Serbia’s second team and Greece, they faced Slovenia in the fifth-place match. Winning 14–10, Ukraine-2 successfully concluded the tournament in fifth place.
Overall, the Ukrainian Basketball Federation reported that the national delegation returned from the World Championships with two gold medals and a fifth-place finish.
