This year, the women's national team of Ukraine has a very busy calendar. After all, our athletes will take part in three tournaments at once: the European Golden League (May-June), the European Championship (August-September) and the qualification for the Olympics (September).
The ladies are goins to gather on April 27 in Chernivtsi for a practice-training sessions before the start of the competition. According to Ivan Petkov, the head coach of the blue and yellow team, he plans to call up about thirty volleyball players to the national team.
- We are still thinking about the total number. However, I can already say that there will be many young ladies in the team. We will call approximately 26-30 athletes and divide them into two groups. They will work on the development of physical and technical training. Ladies need to understand what we demand from them. I think there will be a good symbiosis between them.
After three weeks of training in Chernivtsi, our team will first go abroad for training to Germany, and then to Slovakia. In these countries, we will hold sparring matches with the local national teams, and then we will start in the European Golden League-2023 with two consecutive matches against Hungary.
- When we started working in the national team, some girls were still very young, - said Ivan Petkov. - At first it was difficult, but in the qualification for Euro-2023 they showed excellent progress. The national team of Ukraine is a big project. The team needs to raise its lath every year. We strive to be first in every tournament we participate in, but still we remain realistic. Reaching the finals of the Golden Euro League 2023 will be a great success for us. Of course, we want to win this tournament. However, my players still have to toughen up in matches against strong opponents. They demonstrate good performance every day, which is the key to their growth.
Not so long ago, our national team learned about its opponents in the qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The blue-and-yellows are in Group A, where they will play against China (the hosts), Serbia, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Canada, the Czech Republic and Mexico.
- We will take step by step in our development, and now we are thinking only about the near future. If we talk about going to the Olympics, then this is a very difficult task. After all, there are no weak teams there, just like at the Euro. It is necessary to go out and fight for the result in every game, - concluded the Bulgarian specialist.
