Both the men's and women's Prometheus teams are preparing for the upcoming season as the current champion of the country. In an interview for the club's press service Kyrylo Bolshakov, the sports director of Prometey informed about how the pre-season training of girls is being built, about changes in the team and its near future plans.

- Kirill Vadimovich, the last championship came to an end in April, and now absolutely all clubs of the women's Superleague are preparing for the new season. Please tell us how the pre-season work of "Prometheus" is built.

- We started our training in the fresh air: in the woods, on the sand, on forest paths. The girls ran quite a lot, and a few days ago we entered our new gym. Almost everything is ready for training here, some little things will be eliminated in a few days. The girls are happy with the conditions, and we are all happy that we have such a great court. I think it will be worthy of both the women's and the men's Super League, and holding matches in it will beautify our championships.

The girls have not yet gathered in full force. The legionnaires arrive on their schedule according to the contracts that have been signed, and Veronika Lubinets from the 3x3 youth team went to Romania for an international tournament. The girls are at different levels of readiness, there are a number of injured players, whose injuries last from the previous season. A number of players underwent surgery and they just started to go out on the court. Their rehabilitation is going on and it is difficult to make any predictions now. We hope to see Kondus and Horobets in the game in the autumn. The situation with Lyuda Naumenko is worse. We really wish to see her as a part of the team, but her recovery after the operation is not progressing as fast as we would like. Her contract has not yet entered into force and we are doing our best to make her recover as soon as possible to have her helping us in the upcoming season. Step by step the girls are gaining shape.

- Are you planning to take part in any pre-season tournaments in the near future or just holding sparrings?

- Of course, we have to hold some sparring matches before the season. There are some plans, but there are no clear agreements so far. The coronavirus pandemic still broke the tradition of tournaments in Europe. For example, Lithuanian colleagues, who have always held pre-season tournaments and invited us there, are not ready to give an answer today. There are plans to participate in the tournament within Ukraine and we will continue looking for any options in European countries.

- If we talk about changes in the line-up, would it be correct to say that the main emphasis was on the acquisition of players for the front line?

- Last season we were hurt in European tournaments. We had a good, light, mobile team, but we clearly lacked strength in Europe. Due to one or two big players, the Hungarian and Turkish teams simply pressed us under the backboards, and had a significant supremacy in this component. We had to remove this minus. Consequently, the American player Holmes, who will arrive soon, appeared in our team. Burly girl, skillful, who really wants to play. Her brother is now playing in the NBA Summer League, and she is following him, rushing into big basketball. I guess she has everything for that.

We signed a famous Ukrainian girl, Tetyana Yurkevichus, formerly known as Antonyuk. In  the recent years, she played in Europe, in particular, last season she was the best rebound of the Italian championship. She has good qualities in the fight for a rebound. We hope a lot that these acquisitions will strengthen our front line, make it more powerful and strong in the opposition of the top European teams that await us.

I repeat, we really want to see Luda Naumenko with us. This is a fighting girl who has played in Turkey for the last few years, spent good seasons there, gained a high level, but after the operation we are waiting for  her health to get better. Bosnian national team player Nikolina Babic appeared in the back line. She did not play in the top European championships, but at the national team level she looked very decent, she showed her level there. She expressed a desire to move over here and play in our championship. It will help close those gaps that are associated with the absence of injured Condus and Horobets - this is the position of the second number, and in the future we will see how to transform Nikolina into a "single" or "three". I think this is a good purchase. Compared to last season, except for Oksana Mollova, all Ukrainian players remained in the team.

- Did the personnel changes affect any positions in the coaching staff of the team?

- By and large, everything is stable here. There is one change: instead of Artem Chemyakin, who went to the Kharkiv men's Polytechnic, we were joined by the well-known basketball player Yulia Yakhina, today Agapova. She is already, in fact, a good coach.

- What are your expectations for the upcoming season in general? The president of the club Volodymyr Dubynskyi said that the upcoming championship will be more competitive than the previous one. Do you agree with his opinion?

- According to the latest information from the Basketball Federation of Ukraine "Vinnytsia Lightning" team will not be in the championship. Instead we will see Kyiv's Budivelnyk. All the news from there is very positive. I am very pleased that this team was formed and in some sense returned, because it feels the history of the Kyiv TIM-SKUF, the team that set the tone in the Ukrainian championship for many years. I think that under the leadership of Bohdan Sviatoslavovich Gulyamov everything will be fine there and the team will follow the right direction. There is a very strong opponent, a contender for the highest awards, which will certainly affect the championship in a very good way. It cannot help but rejoice.

- Thank you! We can only wish another success to our favorite team!

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