TEHRAN - Eleni Kapogianni praised her team for winning the silver medal at the 2023 FIBA Women's Asia Cup Division B.

Team Melli narrowly lost to Indonesia 55-54 and failed to advance to the Division A but stole the show in the competition held in Bangkok, Thailand.  

“I’m happy to be back to Iran with my team. I should say about this tournament that it’s first time in Iranian women basketball history that we participated in such a tournament. We earned so many wins and made it to the final,” Kapogianni said.

“Of course, we were not the favorites team, the Americans usually make difference (in such competitions).

“However, we were very close to the miracle. but still to me, my girls are winners and they made history. I hope this is start of a bigger progress for the Iranian women’s basketball,” the Greek added.  

“The national team have improved and everybody confirmed that. The women showed that how strong they are.  

“During the competitions, everybody including opponent coaches, fans, spectators, people from FIBA, they said how much the Iranian girls have changed their games,” Kapogianni stated.

“So, it’s obvious that they changed their game and they have had huge progress. Hopefully, they will have bigger and bigger progress in the future.

“I want to thank the Iranian fans supporting us in Bangkok because they were amazing. They supported our team from the very first second to the very last. They were there in the hall, clapping for the girls, clapping for all of us. I got their positive vibes and I want to thank them a lot for their support. I believe we gave them back some of these supports by finishing second in the tournament and made them happy.,” she concluded.