Baltic Games 1973
For a time every two years, from 1969, Baltic Games were
held in Australia over the Anzac long weekend.
When held in Adelaide the Forrestville basketball stadium was a hive of
activity as Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians came to compete with each other
in volleyball and basketball. Created to
help strengthen ties among young Australians of Baltic descent, 200 competitors,
some top of their field would compete.
Among the Latvian basketballers, Andris Blicavs[i],
SA State player Peter Vitols, NSW state player Maris Jaunalkanis for the men
and Ilze Blicavs[ii]
for the women.
Lithuanians had American born Frank Chickowski and superstar
Karen Maar[iii]
will be the Estonian top women basketballer.
The Estonians had a strong volleyball team, all members of
their team had played State volleyball.
Their women’s team contains only one player who hasn’t played State and
were coached by national women’s volleyball coach Juhan Olesk.Dual Olympic basketballer Mike Dancis was the opening flag bearer for the opening of the games by Don Dunstan.
[i] Blicavs played for the Australia men's national basketball team during the 1970s. He competed for Australia at the 1974 World Championship in Puerto Rico and the 1978 World Championship in the Philippines. Blicavs also represented Australia at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
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