The life of Alexander Petrenko, who was the player of BC Khimki since 2002, tragically ended on July 21, 2006. One year later a memorial tablet, which ends with the words: “We remember and love you, Sasha!”, was solemnly set up at the facade of the Basketball Centre. The same year the first international tournament in his memory was launched. Junior teams of Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic and Israel took part in it. The home team of Russia confidently won the competition. In 2008 the memorial was attended by national teams of Russia, Greece, the Czech Republic and Italy (U-18). In the final match Greek players were victorious over Russian ones.

– We try to give more time for preparing young players, – the General Director of BC Khimki Viktor Bychkov says. – And we would really like to see young sportsmen learning from the example of a wonderful man and an outstanding basketball player Alexander Petrenko ... He played in many teams but his best years he spent in our club. In Khimki Petrenko proved himself as a true leader, a man who united the whole team around himself and led it forward.

This tournament is a small part of love that we – players, coaches, staff, the government of Khimki and Moscow Region – felt for this wonderful man. We are glad that this is the third memorial.

Khimki is a non-official capital of the Russian youth basketball. From time to time main basketball tournaments take place in Basketball Center of Moscow Region. There are all conditions for living, nutrition and qualified training for sportsmen.

It is pleasant that the backbone of our team again consists of the foster children of BC Khimki (Vasiliy Martynov, Serdar Annayev, Oleg Alferov, Pavel Sizov, Stanislav Ilnytskiy, Dmitry Guzikov, Rostislav Karenin) and the assistant of the head coach of BC Khimki Oleg Meleshchenko heads it.

In the first match of the tournament the Russians confidently beat their coevals from Croatia. The second day of the stubborn struggle with the Lithuanians led the Russian team to the hard victory with a difference of 4 points (64-60). Eventually, in the final day of the tournament the National teams of Russia and Serbia met to determine the champion.

Before the tournament experts predicted that the winner of the competition will be determined precisely in the game between Russia and Serbia. So it turned out, and this match became the real decoration of the Memorial. It drew to the Palace of Sport “Lobnya” not only fans, but also well-known basketball coaches and specialists. The struggle for the first place was very interesting and hard as well: three quarters ended in a draw. Finally, the National team of Serbia won 75-69.

Oleg Meleshchenko:
– The match was difficult, we could win, but in the last two minutes we made three errors, which determined the fate of the meeting. In any case, this tournament really helped us before the start of European Championship. We realized which work should be done, marked our strengths whereby we can win in future and understood how to vary the roster during the match.

After the decisive game the solemn closing ceremony of the tournament was held. It was attended by the General Director of BC Khimki Viktor Bychkov, the president of Basketball Federation of Moscow Region Igor Khodin, the honorary president of Dynamo Moscow Youth Basketball Team Eugene Gomelskiy and relatives of Alexander Petrenko – his mother Galina and daughter Sasha.

STATISTICS

Day First (July 24)
Serbia – Lithuania – 99-73
Russia – Croatia – 81-52

Day Second (July 25)
Croatia – Serbia – 72-87
Russia – Lithuania – 64-60

Day Third (26 July)
Lithuania – Croatia – 80-66
Russia – Serbia – 69-75

THE FINAL STANDINGS

1. Serbia 3-0
2. Russia 2-1
3. Lithuania 1-2
4. Croatia 0-3

BEST PLAYERS OF THE TOURNAMENT

Best player of the National team of Croatia – Philip Bundović
Best player of the National team of Lithuania – Jokubas Gintvanis
Best player of the National team of Serbia – Nicola Magić
Best player of the National team of Russia – George Egorov
MVP – Nicola Radicević (Serbia)